John The Savage | Mitolife Radio Ep #185

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
day, feel, body, honestly, friends, eating, absolutely, great, muscle, started, benefits, protein, health, training, people, funny, moving, high, fitness, good

Matthew Blackburn 00:19
You're listening to episode 185 of Mito Life Radio. I'm Matt Blackburn and today I'm interviewing John the savage. That's probably the coolest introduction that I've ever done. I love his name. John's a personal trainer. He's been studying physical fitness for several years and he shares a really simple approach. Several years ago, I was using a hex bar and deadlifting several times a week and I gained a ton of muscle. And this was at a time when I was actually on a vegan diet, and eating a lot of beans and soy, and zero sugar. It was a really wild experiment that I was doing fasting for 23 hours a day. But I did gain a ton of muscle, mostly from just doing deadlifts. And I think for a lot of people, the aesthetics is really important. And for me, that's just a side benefit, it's not the main focus to look big, or to look ripped, because I think that body dysmorphia has pervaded the health community to where men should look like Hercules and women should all have low body fat. And I think that aspect of why you're doing it, just like anything else, really matters. And I think a lot of people get into strength training for the wrong reasons, because they're trying to compensate for low self esteem, or whatever it is. And while gaining muscles can definitely help with that in a man, it can also turn them into a mean person, which I've seen a lot in the health community, people just get this holier than thou attitude, because they have muscles and they strength train all the time. So it really comes back to why you're doing it. For me, I'm most interested in longevity. I know a lot of people don't care about that, they're more interested in performing, and then dying at a ripe age of 100 or 120, and that's completely fine. It really depends on what your goals are. But either way, I think listening to what John has to say in the show can help you out, especially if you don't know where to start. If you're overwhelmed. I think there's so much information out there about fitness and strength training, just like supplements, nutrition. There's people on all sides trying to convince you of their different ways of doing things. And John's way is simple - It's a place to start. And you can build from there if you want into more complexity. So I'll stop ranting, here is John the savage. All right, we're here with John the savage. Welcome to the show.

John the Savage 03:27
Alright, Matt, thanks for having me. Longtime listener, first time guest. It's a pleasure to be here.

Matthew Blackburn 03:33
Yeah, yeah, we've been friends for what, three, four years now I lost count maybe three or so and been chatting back and forth with different protocols and stuff and in life. And we seem to have kind of a similar background with, you know, people that we've listened to. I know you're inspired heavily by Ray Peat and took some of his ideas and integrated them and different health educators and it's seems like it's one big experiment. And no one person has it all figured out. That's my current perspective.

John the Savage 04:13
Yeah, absolutely. Honestly, that's like, more than half the fun of it. Because, you know, I hope I never come to the conclusion where like, I have it all figured out because then, you know, like, what's the fun in that? Like the journey really is the destination when it comes to this and experimenting and learning about yourself and learning about different things that you can apply to different people that's just all part of the process and really helps grow that base of knowledge that makes you a valuable person.

Matthew Blackburn 04:42
When did you start studying natural health and why did you get into it?

John the Savage 04:47
So I started getting serious about it probably when I was like, 23 I just finished up my Bachelor's in college doing psychology - did absolutely nothing with that. But um, you know, it definitely got me thinking, because obviously I had so much background, the whole mind aspect that I started to consider the body. And, you know, up until then the only thing I really considered with the body was training. But naturally the missing component, that little trifecta is nutrition. So, you know, funny enough, like, the Shaun Baker, and like fasting rabbit hole was the first one that I went down. So I was like, hella carnivore, just slamming meat, and fat and fasting, just basically for a good almost half a year, my diet was just not eating. And when I did eat, it would be, you know, meat, eventually that slowly transitioned into raw stuff. And, you know, Aajonus, for what he is, is definitely someone that will make you start to think and question a lot of stuff about the mainstream narratives for health. And I really liked that about him just because he really changes your perspective on so many things. And frankly, coming from such like, a basic, like understanding of nutrition where I was taking stuff like D3 fish, or just like basic multivitamin and thinking like, oh, you know, all my nutritional requirements are met, because I took that, it just kind of like, wipe the slate clean of that thought. And then slowly over the years, until now, I've been rebuilding that into something that I feel is more geared towards what actual health is. Yeah, right now, just doing my own thing, doing just some raw, some coats. It's just really kind of matters on the day and how I'm feeling. But yeah, I really try not to be super strict, and especially with my wife coming over and cooking for me as much as she does, it's kind of hard to be strict. But, you know, I'm happy that that sort of orthorexia has kind of dissipated from my life and my thinking. And while it's still certainly present in other ways, I think as a whole, just having that weight lifted off my shoulders is putting me in a significantly better place. Even if I would say that, you know, when I was 100% raw, I was like, healthier. Like, I may have been healthy physically, but mentally, you know, I was definitely missing some things.

Matthew Blackburn 07:40
Yeah, I remember what I was 100% raw vegan, and it was so tricky, going out to eat for birthdays and events, I would have to go to my health food Co-Op and buy the package - you know, well, I was 100% vegan. So I guess that was kind of on the same level as raw as far as difficulty of maintaining it. You know, cuz every place we'd go to cheese would be in stuff and dairy be mixed in. But yeah, definitely screws with your social life and I feel like just your, your mental health, right? To be that strict.

John the Savage 08:16
Yeah, absolutely. The funny thing is like, even before I was like, so committed to diet, like, you know, just because I was always pursuing fitness, like I was so used to telling people like, oh, no, I can't go out like I'm cutting right now. Like, oh, it doesn't fit my macros, blah, blah, blah. Like, I already had, like, a incredibly long list of excuses to use with people. But now it's just like, yeah, like, let's go, why not? You know, that social aspect definitely does something for the soul that I think a lot of people do not take into consideration when they talk about their own well being. And like, yeah, the food might not be the best quality and like be cooked in questionable oils and all that but just being able to be out with friends and enjoy something and, you know, enjoy a meal because there is such a social aspect to that that has been with us throughout almost all human history. I think that's really important.

Matthew Blackburn 09:09
Yeah, notice, like, french fry hate recently, mostly coming from Dave Asprey. Like seems like once a month or so he'll like posts like an anti fried food post, I remember he said, you know, smoking cigarettes is better for you than eating french fries. It's like, wait a minute. Yeah, I don't know. I think French fries are delicious and I think we can mitigate - you know, I don't eat fried foods every week. You know, I'll cycle it or whatever, but yeah. So wait, before we started recording, you were talking about copper and you said you've been experimenting. Kind of want to jump into that for a little bit.

John the Savage 09:52
Absolutely. So based off of the interview you had with Jason Hommel. Like I just took the dive completely into copper and, you know, I use the copper sulfate to make my own solutions. Initially I was doing that topically and I was doing - I think I have copper bisglycinate that I was doing orally. And honestly, like, I was going fucking crazy with the - doing it topically, I know you were saying you're doing like 15 to 20 dropper fulls, but dude, like I was literally like, my forearms, my legs, like the backs of my legs, any spot that I could like, feel that could get saturated. I was doing it maybe like every 30 minutes when I was at work. So I was like, just abs- I was literally turned blue because there was so much on me. And there was so much on me that like you know, in the webbing of my hands and in the inside of my elbows like it would eventually dry up and it would start like, you know, messing with my skin. So I eventually decided to just bite the bullet and try doing it orally because I tried it once I think I only did like five drops too, which is crazy to look back on. But I did five drops just straight to the dome and that yawns nauseous. And I remember perusing his Facebook group, and he said something about doing it with milk, helping with the nausea. So whenever I would have like, you know, a protein shake, or like my post workout shake, or just coffee, like oh, I slowly worked up from five to now 12 drops, and like I don't have any of the nausea I really think I'm starting to experience like the benefits that he associates with like restoring copper, which is just like, insane energy.

Matthew Blackburn 11:32
When you were on the copper bisglycinate how many milligrams were you taking?

John the Savage 11:36
I think I started at 20 and I worked up to 40 milligrams.

Matthew Blackburn 11:41
Wow.

John the Savage 11:41
So I know that the ratio between like actual copper and lysine, you're not getting so much but you know, it's just something that I had around because science bio was going out of business, so I just scooped it on a sale. I was like, I'll try out and honestly, like, you know, it's still something I have around but the sulfates just so convenient because you know, you just mix it up and then you have it for like, for the better part of the month. And it's just no hassle whatsoever. You don't have to weigh anything and it's just something you just drop away - you're done.

Matthew Blackburn 12:13
Yeah, yeah, it's one of those things like making homemade magnesium bicarbonate, that it's like pennies. It's so cheap. That that kind of takes away excuses from people when they say they can't afford, you know, so many supplements. It's like, well, you can make you can make a lot of supplements at home. People are even using borax internally, which I messed around with. But yeah, you made an interesting point about the copper bisglycinate. Like how much of that is actually the amino acid, I think it's like half or more something like labels are actually kind of misleading, right on supplements, because you have to take that into account. So you're getting, you know, say you take, you know, 20 milligrams of copper bisglycinate, maybe, I don't know 10. Let's just say - just get half of that as copper. And then how was - how much of that do you absorb?

John the Savage 13:06
Because Jason says like, if you have 10 milligrams of that you're only getting like one milligram and the higher you go, the less you get. So there's so many like hoops, you have to jump through that, like copper ends up seeming like one of those things that kind of just go like, if you just force it, like you will get it - it will kind of ruin a few beverages, but it's definitely worth it. And something that I've been doing with it just because we have some Acerola cherry powder rounds for some Vitamin C. And yeah, that combo, I really feel it's just like getting things like absolutely going.

Matthew Blackburn 13:43
Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, I remember the first time I megadosed did during the Atom Bergstrom interview, I was extremely nauseous. And that was only topical. But that was my first time doing a ton of it and yeah, it gets kind of tricky, because it raises your requirements for other things. Like Jason talks about zinc and ascorbic acid. And then potentially a bunch of other stuff we don't know about - chromium molybdenum, who knows? And so it gets kind of tricky when you start supplementing isolates. You know, like I sell the K2 and the E because to me those are countering things that we've been megadosing like excess calcium and you know, canola oil or whatever. But you know, this it kind of makes things a little more complicated, which is why think Morley tries to simplify it and just promotes you know, beef liver. And, you know, I think like under 10 milligrams or even five milligrams or something of copper bisglycinate today, you know, nowhere near 100 like Jason's using

John the Savage 14:51
Yeah, for when I started just getting really serious with it, actually, that was also at the same time I was, I've been for a while kind of consistently consuming like 100 grams of ? a day. So I definitely had like, you know, a decent amount of zinc to balance it out, I would have my like pretty frequent oysters throughout the week to again, make sure I'm getting enough zinc. But recently I cut out the beef liver, just to see like you know if it is going to make that big of a change or if I'm going to start experiencing some of the negative side effects associated with it, and frankly speaking, I haven't yet so, you know, I guess I'm going to keep pushing it and then if I ever feel like I'm on the verge of starting to experience diminishing returns from it, then - you know, I'm just going to cut it out for a little bit. Gonna reintroduce the beef liver, just stick with that for a bit and then see if I feel like reintroducing it at some time.

Matthew Blackburn 15:43
Have you ever gotten any blood tests like to see your copper and zinc status or anything?

John the Savage 15:49
I don't think I've ever gotten like a serious blood test to be honest. And the last time - so I donated blood maybe like three months ago now and I think the only other time I gave blood before that was for - they're checking to see if I had some kind of infection and I just have the first veins to like poke and prod around. So find like a good spot to stick to get blood out of that. I'm just super, like hesitant to that because it is a nightmare trying to get blood out of me.

Matthew Blackburn 16:24
I remember you were saying that yeah and it's it's not fun when they stick all the way through the vein like they did to me this year. It actually didn't hurt at all, but it was just kind of like wow, that sucks now I have this bruise.

John the Savage 16:40
Thankfully, like last time I gave blood my family friend who's a nurse that literally just did it for me. So she was absolutely like steady hand and just took it out on me no problem. But the time before that, oh my god, they started my right arm they gave up they went to my left arm and then they went back to my right arm. And by the end of it, I was just feeling like a pin cushion. I was like this is something I don't want to do again.

Matthew Blackburn 17:06
Yeah, I posted about this thing if it gets called venue logic, this company, I think it's only they're not selling retail at this point. But it's like a AI controlled robotic thing that you put your arm in and so the robot and then it sticks you but it finds your veins via like infrared sensors and stuff.

John the Savage 17:28
Yeah, I've seen those used in the hospitals and those are super fucking cool like - like it's crazy just how like effective that works. I'm sure with like, you know, actual, like algorithms behind it. Like, it's definitely going to be better than human.

Matthew Blackburn 17:44
Right. Yeah, as long as it's not like, what was it - Sophia or Hans that's behind it, right? The the AI

John the Savage 17:50
As long as it just doesn't turn it to Skynet, and it just starts stabbing people.

Matthew Blackburn 17:58
Yeah, well, so, so you did the copper experiment, you're taking a break from beef liver to see if you feel that and just kind of going off of symptoms, because that's another argument. Like, you can't just go off symptoms, you have to get tests to kind of see where you're at. But it's tricky with vitamins and minerals, right? Especially like fat soluble vitamins, which are not in your blood, largely in your blood, they're in your, in your liver and in your tissues. I mean, the same thing I've been researching, like ascorbic acid, you know, for months and seeing the, like, yeah, you have the plasma concentration, but then it'll diffuse like, into the retina into the brain, into the adrenal, you know, into the everywhere in the body. And you can't really see that with a blood test. So I can see the validity and the argument to just go by symptoms. But it's a little tricky, right? Because you could just start chasing your tail and people-

John the Savage 18:59
Absolutely. The funny thing about me is that like, you know, my dive into health wasn't really driven, particularly by any sort of symptom because like, even till this day, like I don't really have any like, pronounced issue in my life that I'm trying to, like fix. So, you know, just based off of the fact that you know, I eat a lot of cereal as a kid. There's a fuck ton of iron in that like it's just safe to assume that I need something to help balance and regulate that in my body. And I really feel like copper was like, just one of those things that made sense for somebody in my case.

Matthew Blackburn 19:35
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Are you taking any other supplements or?

John the Savage 19:41
Honestly, the only thing that I've been doing kind of consistently just aspirin, just plain old like pure aspirin powder. I feel like that is something that since I started it has been just making such a positive impact on my recovery and my overall well-being that you know, It's something that, you know, I've got like, five bottles of just pure aspirin powder in the closet just because I know it's something that I use consistently. And every time I use it like I can always notice that like, thyroid mimicking, like effect of it, obviously, the inflammation reduction is something else. But it just leaves me feeling really good, really warm and just like very mentally clear. And it's funny because, you know, it's obviously advertising just like fever reducer, a pain reliever, and yet, it does so much more than that.

Matthew Blackburn 20:31
Wow, that's interesting. I think I still have the bag of the powder laying around somewhere that was for horse use or something like that. But yeah, that's probably new to a lot of people listening to this, because, you know, they say, oh, that's, you know, it's a chemical or it's, it's unnatural. I had my friend Ben Belty on - I think it was like a year and a half ago. And he's like - ancestral guy sells wild rice. And we had a show called, like, ancestral aspirin and he was saying, there used to be a lot more, or there's a theory that there used to be a lot more willow trees. And over the centuries, those decreased, and the willow bark contains that salicylic acid that, you know, aspirin compound, basically - and so essentially, we were getting more of that ancestrally than we are today, when there were more, you know, willow trees around, because the animals were getting it in their system, we were eating the animals, that - that kind of made sense to me. I mean, I don't know. I forget what he said what decimated the willow tree population. But yeah, so interesting idea.

John the Savage 21:44
Yeah, for sure. But apart from that, something else that's kind of been an on and off experiment, it's actually just pure urea, because that is a really potent booster of CO2 in the body, my logic is, a lot of, you know, pre workout supplements or like pump supplements, they usually take the road of nitric oxide bosting and nitric oxide is definitely something you don't want to have, like, elevated so much. And one of the things that Pete says is, "CO2 is just as potent as a vessel dilator as nitric oxide." So I've been taking like up to 10 grams before the gym, and I can definitely vouch for that claim that like, you know, I'm definitely getting a significantly larger pump than I would be if I didn't. So you know, it's definitely expanding blood vessels and with that, of course, comes just more blood flow and more nutrients and better opportunities for cells to actually get damage to be repaired to grow muscle.

Matthew Blackburn 22:45
Is that like a urine extract? Because I know they use that in a lot of cosmetic products. And it's actually in my diesel exhaust fluid. It's interesting when I looked at the label, it's def - my diesel truck - urea is like 70%, I think the ingredients.

John the Savage 23:02
It's - I think it's just like a combination of ammonia and CO2 but when it's in the body, it just kind of, you know, the ammonia gets filtered out by the kidneys, and you're just left with the CO2 in the bloodstream. And I forget where it's synthesized from. I remember that website explicitly state - stating that it's not from urine, which is a bit of a relief. But yeah, I know, it's also used as like fertilizer, and, you know, people drink turpentine. So it's not so weird for using urea.

Matthew Blackburn 23:34
I wonder if that's the benefit of the urine therapy people are saying, because I years ago, I had a guy Yogi Zen stay with me with my roommate in my first apartment. He was like aging urine in my mason jars above my fireplace. It's like, rubbing it on his skin on our back patio. And I was on a essentially an algae diet back then. So I was trying to bring my blue green algae elixir to work. And I didn't have a mason jar because he peed in all of them.

John the Savage 24:06
Hey man you got to do what you got to do.

Matthew Blackburn 24:10
He had me wondering, maybe that's the benefit that they feel because they - they claim. Like, I don't think they're lying if they feel so much better drink in their urine. Maybe it's the urea aspect that's giving them the benefit there.

John the Savage 24:23
Yeah, definitely topically because you know, one of the main things and the reason for it being in all cosmetic products is that it helps balance out like the liquids within cell membranes and whatnot. So if you have something like, you know, psoriasis or whatnot, it's going to be like a really potent thing to calm that down and just let everything returns like homeostasis more or less.

Matthew Blackburn 24:47
Interesting. Yeah, I'll leave that to my male goat he - like to be like the bucks like to pee on themselves to attract the females. Yeah, it's interesting though, that CO2 verse nitric oxide thing? It seems like NO is an evil - it's just you don't want it, like chronically increased. Right?

John the Savage 25:10
Exactly. And it's funny because you know, like I was saying, this is just a regular product where the main appeal is like, oh, nitric oxide boosting capabilities and it's like, yeah, it's gonna help, you know, obviously expand blood vessels and whatnot, but at what cost? Like that's going to eventually like lead to oxidative damage on the system and honestly, I don't think that's worth it. At least in my case, it's absolutely a better choice using the urea.

Matthew Blackburn 25:37
Yeah, yeah. So moving into exercise and strength training. I was telling you before we started recording, I don't have much experience. I mean, I used to go to like, Gold's Gym and 24 Hour Fitness with my friends. Can't remember what whey shake I was drinking. I think it was in soy based or something for years. But yeah, I mean, my, you know, basic movement here, like I don't deadlift, or use dumbbells here at this point. It's just moving and farming and homesteading. I'm just forced to be outside and get sunlight and, and move my body. And I guess you can kind of jump in with that. Like, do you think lifting weights - I guess it depends what you what your your goal is, but, do you think if you're like homesteading with animals, and growing food and hunting and foraging, like you need to, like set time aside to lift? Or what are your thoughts on that?

John the Savage 26:54
Honestly, in that case, I don't really think it's so necessary, because you know, there is something called farmers strength, just because like farmers are doing, you know, sunrise to sundown, they're working consistently, they're never really pushing themselves to failure, but they're doing the same things again, and again and again, that's such an effective way to build like, an insane amount of strength over time. And when you look at it, like strength is one of the best factors to look at, if you want to just have a guesstimate for longevity. Like, if I'm not mistaken, like, being on the higher end of like, strength - and when I say strength, I mean, basic metrics, like just being able to, like hang from a bar for some time, just like your grip strength, being able to get up from a chair, like, the stronger you are, I think across the board, you experienced like a three times reduction in all cause mortality. And that's just from, you know, just being fit.

Matthew Blackburn 27:59
Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, it's interesting whenever I go to the city, and, you know, look in the window, not to say I'm, you know, higher up here on my high horse in the mountains on great property, but just my observation, when I go to San Diego, or whatever to visit, family and friends, and, you know, walk by a gym and just see people on the elliptical thing or the treadmill, it just, it seems like a big factory farm and, and, you know, under artificial light working out indoors. And what I appreciate about what you're doing is, you're modeling, you're outside, you're in the sun barefoot, my friend Justin of extreme health radio does the same thing is, you know, he lifts his weights out outside his garage, you know, with full sun exposure. And that makes a huge difference, right?

John the Savage 28:50
Oh, absolutely. Like, it's just like one of those things like you're literally stacking different things that are going to lead to improved health just - yeah, grounding, you're getting the sun exposure. And of course, you're exercising, which comes with a whole host of benefits, whether it be - obviously from gaining muscle and strength or just from the fact that you're breaking a sweat, you're stimulating your lymphatic system, you're getting things moving, and all those things are contributing to overall wellbeing.

Matthew Blackburn 29:21
Yeah, I thought I saw a study years ago -- it was basically showing how artificial light breaks down our bone matrix and basically makes our bones like brittle. Yeah, I can't remember the specific details this was like six, five or six years ago.

John the Savage 29:46
Yeah, it really is funny like that just the typical like gym environment. Just how like, you know, yes, you can use it to help your health but in above itself, it's so nonconducive to help, because you're under that blue light, you're crowded, you're constantly bombarded by the billion VOCs, or all the cleaners that they're using. Just, you know, if your gym has like a pool or a sauna, like, you know, there's chlorine in the air, and there's so much and then like, you know, kind of expanding from that just like the whole, like, funny enough, my first foray into like, having a more information based Instagram is actually called Fitstagram, or I was just, you know, trying just, you know, I did -- did protein bars. I did, I posted lifts, and I posted protein bar reviews, but it's so funny how, like, warped of a perception that space is and how much it misconstrues the idea of health, because I feel like so many people end up thinking, like, oh, like, I'm following this pro, bodybuilder, and his workouts are like, the most grueling thing in the world. And, you know, that's what I need to be doing. And it's like, no, that's absolutely not the case. Like, honestly, just starting with the best, like, the minimum effective dose of training will be the best decision for like 9 out of 10 people. Because not only do you allow yourself, so much room to grow from that, but the majority of the benefits that you actually get from increasing your physical fitness is just going from not being fit to being moderately fit. So you don't need to go super crazy with everything. And obviously, not even having to jump into all the anabolics and what crap they're eating and all the other powders they're promoting. But there really isn't that big of a jump that people have to make in regards to their health, with just working out, like they don't need to take it to the extreme and, and especially not every day, like it's just something that, you know, you need to touch up on every now and then. And it's going to benefit you for the rest of your life.

Matthew Blackburn 32:06
Yeah, that's, that's a good point. I definitely have taken the all or nothing approach I did. I don't know if you're following me then but I did the Amen-Ra protocol for like six months, like really strict. And then maybe like nine months, you know, total, but it was essentially 23 hour a day fasting, one hour eating window. And with basically like beans, soy milk, protein shake, like all the amino acids and soy milk that I would make myself and usually a big bowl of beans. I actually got pretty jacked. I mean, it was incredible. I wasn't eating, you know, any animal products at all. And I saw pictures, I mean, I was ripped. But I was dead lifting, pretty much seven days a week with the hex bar. And yeah, that was - I mean, it definitely did a number on my back overtime.

John the Savage 33:06
I can imagine. Yeah, that's something that I feel like a lot of people don't take into consideration. It's just like how, like, people get into fitness, because they obviously want to start caring about themselves, but they don't realize that too much of a good thing can be bad. And I feel like, especially with fitness, the diminishing returns that you get, if you aren't like 100% with things like you know, your nutrition, your recovery is going to catch up with you so quickly. And there's so many people in the fitness space that just have this mentality of just grinding through it. And they take pride in that and it's so silly for me to like, look at these people that you know, train seven days a week, they're absolutely dripping sweat consistently. And they're like, oh, you know, like, you get in what you put out, like I train three or four days a week, I'm in and out of the gym and like an hour ends, you know, I'm on par with these people. Like, it's really, it's just one of those funny things that I think it's become such a norm that people just refuse to question them almost. And that's something that I really hope to change because, you know, like, really starting with just the bare minimum and working from there and just focusing on recovery because frankly speaking, like, if I could do anything like I would have half the routine I currently have, but if I could recover 100% from it, I would be completely okay with that. Because the recovery is where things grow; That's where the benefits happen. And sure, you know, you're burning extra calories when you're working out and everything but the real magic happens when you've recovered from what you've done to yourself and I don't think people really give that the weight that it has.

Matthew Blackburn 34:56
Yeah, that's a really good point. That - and sleep. has a huge role to play there right?

John the Savage 35:02
Oh absolutely.

Matthew Blackburn 35:03
A lot of people are like, partying downtown every weekend, like staying up late. I have a lot of night owl friends and so I've seen it and to me, I've noticed, if I go to bed past 11pm, it wrecks my health and there's nothing I could do. My next day is just, I have to do so much mitigation hyperbaric chamber, take a nap, you know, don't do as much mental work. So many things are off just with that timing. Just going to bed one hour later at midnight. I've tried it ad nauseam and it's the same result.

John the Savage 35:39
Yeah, no, I know exactly where you're coming from because I'm actually like, for work, I'm a caretaker of a disabled guy. And I work nights so you know, it's a 15 hour shift. I come in at four I leave at seven in the morning. You know, my boss is cool she says like, as long as I can wake up to an alarm going off, I can sleep. But it's hard for me to sleep at work as much as I wish I could say I do that. But um, yeah, those days after and the days during like, I'm trying to focus so much. I'm just like, doing everything in my power to reduce just systemic inflammation just put my body closer to homeostasis, which I know would be impossible. But, you know, you really have to actively be a participant in recovery as much as you are with training.

Matthew Blackburn 36:27
Did you say 16 hour work days?

John the Savage 36:29
Yeah

Matthew Blackburn 36:30
Wow.

John the Savage 36:31
It's fun.

Matthew Blackburn 36:34
So from when to when, but

John the Savage 36:37
Usually - lately, it's just been four o'clock, four o'clock in the afternoon. seven in the morning. So it's actually 15. But yeah, it's basically 16.

Matthew Blackburn 36:47
Yeah, that's, that's nuts. My first job was stocking at PetSmart overnight and I think that was a start at 10pm and I would leave at 6am. And that, just three months of that was horrible. It was so harsh. Not to mention, I almost got crushed by a pallet of dog food because the forklift driver didn't know what he was doing.

John the Savage 37:14
Yeah, especially when you're in a situation where, you know, you're basically deprived of sleep, like, the way I looked at work for me, it's like I'm literally trading my health for income sometimes. But just focusing on getting actual sunlight, right after those days has been like one of the biggest game changers for me, because obviously, you know, winter and spring, like, weather wasn't that great. But now that it's summer, like the day, the second day, after my shifts are done, like that morning workout, just feeling the sun, like I just feel like I'm absorbing and it's crazy how much of an impact it makes just like on my mental health.

Matthew Blackburn 37:55
That's fascinating because I - I've experimented so much with sunbathing over the years from like that quantum health perspective. And what I've noticed in myself is if I go to bed really late, or just under slept or got a poor night's sleep, I don't just like I don't handle the sun as well. Like I get sunburned easier, and I feel like it fatigues me more. And I'm sure there's like a biochemical reason for that.

John the Savage 38:26
Yeah, that's super interesting.

Matthew Blackburn 38:29
Think it was a copper deficiency. It's interesting that you said protein bar reviews, because I read a book years ago, vegan bodybuilding, Robert Cheeke, and he was uh, I don't know if he still is, but he was a heavy promoter in that book of Clif bars for vegans. And I tried it I think for a week or two and I'm like this makes me feel horrible.

John the Savage 38:55
Those things sit like and brew in your stomach. Those are - they just refuse to be digested if you ask me like. They're tasty going down, but coming up you're gonna feel it.

Matthew Blackburn 39:06
Yeah, probably need like multiple colon hydrotherapy sessions. Do you ever get into that colon cleansing?

John the Savage 39:15
I haven't but there is one colon hydrotherapist. I was actually recommended by anthropology teacher from back in the day and I've been you know, like I've toyed with the idea I haven't fully committed yet. But it is something like health things to do. Just like you know, there's a place near me that does both hyperbaric oxygen therapy and also they have a float tank. So I'm planning on making a trip there one day just testing it out and you know, really seeing just how far I can push things within.

Matthew Blackburn 39:46
Nice. Yeah, that - the combination of those to cover so many bases. It's incredible. I've noticed both are incredible. If you get a poor night's sleep, the hyperbaric and the float tank, if I had to pick one, it would probably be the float tank because it really kind of simulates sleep. I mean, I could never take a nap in there. I know some people can fall asleep in the sensory deprivation tank. For me my mind just doesn't allow me to - I don't know if it knows I'm not in bed or whatever.

John the Savage 40:19
Oh, that's really curious because I wonder if like you know maybe because you're so genuinely sensory deprived maybe like gavel start stop regularly and we get that like washing effect in the brain that it's known for. So that's, that's really interesting.

Matthew Blackburn 40:36
Have you ever experimented with melatonin we were talking about that before-

John the Savage 40:40
So I have, but I think my pills are like 300 - either 300 or 100 micrograms. So that's, if I'm not mistaken akin to what is produced in a night's sleep and melatonin, it's half life, it's something close to half an hour. So you know, I try and make sure I have that right before I go to sleep and it definitely helps with just like, the immediate, you're falling into a deep sleep quicker. But this is absolutely just like a John thing. But whenever I go to sleep after work, I'm always like - I physically, I think my body is just regretting all those days spent during like college and high school during the summer when I wake up at like, three in the afternoon and I dont do that anymore. So, you know, as much as I wish I could sleep more on those days. I really just physically can't.

Matthew Blackburn 41:35
Yeah, do you have blackout curtains in your bedroom?

John the Savage 41:37
Yeah. Like blackout curtains earplugs, I got the grounded mat, like I try to everything that I can down to like mouth tape and like a nasal dilator. Like, I'm trying to be in another world and still, like, I don't have to set an alarm. It's always either 12, sometimes if my body's feeling nice, I can wake up at 1. That's very rare but you know, it is what it is. And honestly, like, yeah, I can tell that like I'm not running at 100% but by no means is that really impede me because my work is super intensive.

Matthew Blackburn 42:11
Do you combine mouth taping and the nasal dilator?

John the Savage 42:14
Yes, that's one of my favorite things like that just - the sleep I get from that combo alone is like next level, just because, you know, you're obviously I mean, you're doing nothing but just breathing better. And when you cut out the ability for your body to breathe out the mouth, like you're really just honed in and it just gets like rhythmic. And I think just focusing on breathing as I'm falling asleep with that in, just puts me out like a light.

Matthew Blackburn 42:42
Wow. I'm going to try that tonight because I've only ever done one or the other and I guess I just don't want to shave my whole mustache off here. But that's, that's required if you mouth tape right? That's interesting. Yeah, I'm definitely going to try that because I've never been a mouth breather even growing up. I was just a nose breather. But even if that's the case, in the middle of the night, unless you have a girlfriend or a wife to tell you a partner, that that you're snoring, you don't know. right? And a lot of people that are nose breathers during the day are intermittent mouth breathers. My understanding is that creates a state of like, acute hypoxia so your brain essentially doesn't get oxygen for a period of time which even if it's 10 or 15 seconds or something that's still significant, right?

John the Savage 43:41
Oh, absolutely.

Matthew Blackburn 43:44
Yeah, that's that's interesting. I'm definitely gonna give that a shot. Did you ever try like turning off the breaker box? Like, like electricity?

John the Savage 43:52
Oh of course, yeah, that's off. We got those on timers and everything so right around that time, everything gets killed. And you know, we living in an apartment there's only so much you can do but I think every possible step apart from just like, literally wrapping the bedroom in like an EMF blocking like sheet is being done. So yeah, we're definitely good on that front.

Matthew Blackburn 44:18
Nice. Are you grounding rod to earth or?

John the Savage 44:21
No we're having to use the socket becase we're on the second floor, so-

Matthew Blackburn 44:26
Yeah, it's such an interesting one. Like, you know, the one time if I stay at a hotel, you know, you can't throw it out the hotel window - solid ground to the third prong in the wall. But it seems like it's a dirty electricity issue was my understanding that it can like jump over to the ground essentially. And so if you kind of measure the dirty electricity readings or have Stetzer filters around, or it's not an issue then you don't have to worry. But that's the combo I do and like a hotel I put it in those Stetzer filters plus I ground -- but next experiment I want to do, I don't know if it'll work; I got like a Faraday canopy. You could just like -

John the Savage 45:11
We have those too. Oh my God, that - that really is like that there's, I can't imagine something past that. right? Like that that is the end game. Like, that's - that's the nuclear option when it comes to this not letting yourself fall victim to the trifles of society.

Matthew Blackburn 45:29
Yeah, yeah. Especially if you're in a big city. I mean, I, I can't imagine I don't know if I'm just more sensitive, more aware. But I just I feel it if I like stay in San Diego, with my family for like three or four nights. I just feel so tired. And I get back here, it's like, oh, nice.

John the Savage 45:51
Yeah, health can be achieved. Yeah, I have friends that like still don't believe like the EMF stuff and like, I remember one time I was in a car - I was sitting in the backseat, one of my friends who and just like casually kept his phone on his lap, like, right over his parts. And I'm like, dude, like, just just move it a little bit, please, for me. And he's like, why? It's like just nuking your, your balls with like, non-ionizing radiation, please. Just, he's just like, no, no, like, you're just like, you're being dramatic. And I'm like, okay dude, like, I'm at the point where if I, I can't keep a laptop on my lap, because, like, I feel that current. And like it just like this hazy cloud, like, radiates from it and like, I can sense it, no matter how close it is to my body. It's just, it's very real. And it's silly to think that like, people are still ignoring that.

Matthew Blackburn 46:47
Maybe you should have told him just to like, sun his balls.

John the Savage 46:53
Got to make sure you get them fresh

Matthew Blackburn 46:57
Yeah, it's interesting. You know, often hear, like, you know, a friend of a friend dies of cancer, or, you know, a brain tumor or something like that. And it's, you know, I'm sure we all know, people, you know, extended family, or, you know, friends or friends of friends that just get diagnosed with something like cancer, and it just seems like out of the blue. And, you know, they just get scared into the conventional system of chemo. And I guess people just just forget about those cases. You know, it's like, election time every four years, just amnesia.

John the Savage 47:39
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'm sure if you went to like, the homes of like, half those people, they probably have a router that's running 24/7, maybe at their bedroom. And it's like, how are you expected to heal when you're constantly stressing out your body or messing up those calcium channels, you're producing more nitric oxide, you're just creating this cascade of like responses that are negative that your body needs to deal with before it's able to take care of any other bigger fish.

Matthew Blackburn 48:09
When you donated blood, I think we talked about it, you felt like a like a boost, right? You said for a few days.

John the Savage 48:16
Oh, absolutely. Like, I got, like, dare I say it like, I was a little bit high off giving blood for a bit. But I will say after maybe a week, I started to get like a little dizzy occasionally. Like if I was like, just, you know, like, I just instead of sitting I'll squat, and whenever I would get up quick I would definitely feel like woo a little bit woozy. But you know, I just like upped my nutrition across the board and within like, another week, like that was gone. So that was something I experienced, like, seven to 10 days and you know, it definitely was able to alleviate but um, yeah, even going into it, I consider myself to be in pretty, like outstanding health and it's just like the nutrient stores on my body. But it was a bit of a reality check that that happened to me because, you know, clearly, I've been missing something. And, you know, very novel way of finding that out.

Matthew Blackburn 49:12
Yeah, it can definitely be like an intense detox, like, reaction. It's interesting the first time I donated blood. I felt like Superman and I like a burger and fries - I think it was like a half hour or 45 minutes before I donated it was a burger and fries and I think a Mexican Coca Cola, and I felt so incredible for the next two or three days. And then the second donation I rushed it a little too fast. I didn't, I had a snack, I didn't have a full meal before and I was exhausted. And I feel like it was not a good idea to rush into it. It's definitely something you know, you don't want to plan last minute you want to set aside a day make sure that you're going to eat - to me a huge meal. I mean not to where you're super stuffed but like, you're fully satisfied for hours, that seems to be really-

John the Savage 50:04
Yeah because, you know, at the end of the day, what are you doing? You're getting rid of like, blood, like your body does not want that to be happening, the fact that it is - it's going to create such like a cascade of things where your body's just trying to recover. So, you know, for all the good that it does it definitely at the heart of it is a bit of like a stress response that you're going to have to deal with.

Matthew Blackburn 50:28
Yeah, did you notice a reduction in EMF sensitivity after you donate it?

John the Savage 50:35
Nothing really stand out. Honestly. Although I know typically, it's something between like three and 500mL I think when you donate and because it was literally like, my, my friend borrowed a like the little thingy to go in me from the hospital and we were just kind of like emptying it into one of the jars that I just keep juice in when I'm working and yeah, I think at the end, I got like, close to like 2 or 300. So it wasn't a crazy amount. But you know, I didn't notice anything EMF, but definitely, I think now looking back on how I feel -- now compared to then, just an overall more like clear headedness, because for a while I was definitely having issues with just basic brainfog, but at the same time, like I worked nights, there's only so much I can do. Since then, that has not been an issue like I've been productive, I mean like I'll - it'll be like two in the morning I'll be researching stuff, I'll be using my time wisely because it's a great opportunity when that guy's asleep to just like do whatever I want. So yeah.

Matthew Blackburn 51:43
That's awesome. Catch up on Mito Life Radio, four hour Atom Bergstrom interviews. Yeah, I definitely experienced the reduction in brain fog to. So did you have like essentially like a mobile phlebotomist? You said it was like a friend, like-

John the Savage 52:03
She was just a nurse. She's stuck me and she was just emptying it into a bottle. And I was just sitting on our patient's bed while he was in his wheelchair and it's yeah, just about as ghetto as you could get, honestly, but hey, it got the job done.

Matthew Blackburn 52:20
You should of - did you pour it on like your house plants?

John the Savage 52:23
Yes. Actually, I diluted it with some water maybe - we'll sprinkle Shilajit in there - really treated them, you know.

Matthew Blackburn 52:33
Nice. Yeah, I just learned from a few people, I guess this is a common knowledge - since I'm learning about gardening since I'm about to put up a dome; Urine diluted and I'm not getting urea therapy - I know we talked about it, but 10 to 1 diluted watering your plants. I guess it's like a really bioavailable nitrogen source.

John the Savage 52:54
Yeah, exactly.

Matthew Blackburn 52:56
For plants, so. Yeah, and certain ones, I think like tobaccos has high nitrogen needs. Tomatoes, there's there's a list so -- on that topic, what are your thoughts, this is completely random, but on the whole anti nutrient thing that's, I think it's been trending for years, right? Like lectins phytates.

John the Savage 53:19
I, I don't pay much attention to it. But whenever I have foods that contain those like hallmark anti nutrients, typically the way that we just go about preparing them, it's like the typical like Weston A Price style of like either fermenting it or like really well cooking it. So it's something that you don't have to really worry about. As much of the boogeyman, as are made out to be like most of the time, the majority is going to be neutralized by like preparing them properly. So it's not something - it's something that like back in the day, I really paid mind to, but at this point, like, it's the least of my worries.

Matthew Blackburn 54:02
Yeah, recently I found and I think I'm late to the party but the bean diet and you know, I don't like diets. There's this woman Karen Hurd that's been making the rounds, I think for the last, I don't know, six years or something. And she promotes legumes because they're the highest source of soluble fiber. So I've been going down that rabbit hole the last 24 hours or so. I guess it binds to like excess adrenaline, and all the fat soluble toxins that your bile collects. You know, if you don't have enough fiber, it'll just get reabsorbed like 90 to 95% of it. And that was essentially like fiber free -- for a few years. You know, the Ray Peat thing - It was just a raw carrot once a day. That was the bulk of my fiber, maybe some rice and I felt like that wasn't enough. So since like reintroducing like raw greens, and then my first bean meal yesterday felt incredible. So there's something interesting to the whole fiber thing.

John the Savage 55:11
Yeah and it's one of those things where like, there's so much stuff on like, you know, the normies are just like, oh, you need like a small amount and then like, the opposite ends of the spectrum, of course, like, that exists in the health world where you have people saying, like, no fiber or high fiber, but just like, literally everything else, like balance in the middle is going to work for the general population without a doubt, like hubris and diet is something that should not exist because there is little to no situation where you can be like, 100% all this way and not that way.

Matthew Blackburn 55:49
Yeah, I've been laughing at Paul Saladino's posts, he's like, I don't eat fish because that the mercury, it's like, you know, I was there a few years ago, I get it, but to promote it to that huge of an audience is insane.

John the Savage 56:05
Yeah that's terrible.

Matthew Blackburn 56:08
Yeah, I personally feel amazing on fish, I kind of cycle it where there'll be a few months where I just feel like eating a lot of it, and then I'll take a break. And that just feels good for me, so.

John the Savage 56:18
Yeah, and I love how he'll say stuff like that, but he doesn't take into consideration like, you know, for example, the Selenium in fish that helps not absorb all those heavy metals and whatnot. It's just, he - all those people try and make it so black and white, when, in reality like health is a very vibrantly colored picture.

Matthew Blackburn 56:39
Speaking of vibrantly colored I realized whenever I eat fish, I tend to remember my dreams more and in more detail.

John the Savage 56:48
Interesting.

Matthew Blackburn 56:49
So I wonder if it's the Selenium or you know, different nutrients in it B vitamins? I don't know. I know there's like a B6 dream connection with -

John the Savage 56:57
Yeah, I remember that. I remember, as a kid like having - just eating cucumbers before because they're high in B6, like, consistently, that would give me some pretty wild dreams.

Matthew Blackburn 57:07
I didn't know that. Wow, cucumbers. I'm actually growing some on my deck so I'll have to really get those going.

John the Savage 57:14
Hell yeah

Matthew Blackburn 57:16
Yeah, the B6 thing is kind of scary, because I think I've been reading a lot of Vitamin C books and I think it was Carl Pfeiffer or one of the Vitamin C guys - he was saying, you know, he's a proponent of like niacin and B6. And that was Andrew Saul pretty sure and he was saying, you know, if you take above, I think it was like 2000 milligrams of B6, you can cause neuropathy. It's like, irreversible nerve damage.

John the Savage 57:49
Oh wow.

Matthew Blackburn 57:50
But I don't - I've been playing around with anywhere between 25 and 100 milligrams, and I feel like that's pretty safe, even 200 milligrams. I mean, that's really far away from 2000. But I wonder what variables are involved there to the cause that effect.

John the Savage 58:06
Yeah, of course, that's like, I'm sure it's like an isolated supplement because you know, anything that you take in isolation, the way that it just floods receptors and whatnot produces a response that isn't really what you would get when it has like, not even just cofactors but just other nutrients coming along with it.

Matthew Blackburn 58:27
Yeah, I recently found an awesome bee pollen source from my lightwater friend Victor Sagalovsky, Russian guy, and he's, he's selling his bee pollen, and it like melts in your mouth. It's like, it reminds me of like, the ice cream topping that I grew up with, I can't remember what they would put on there, but like the topping that just melts in your mouth, and - and all the bee pollen I've ever had was like, grainy and hard and you almost have to chew it. This one just dissolves, so I know that's like an incredible source of the complex vitamins. So I've just been taking handfuls throughout the day.

John the Savage 59:11
Yeah, I guess maybe like there's something else in cellulose creating that like outer shell to the bee pollen. So maybe it's just like something with the bees or maybe their environment just like has them using a different source to build like that outside part.

Matthew Blackburn 59:26
Yeah. Yeah, I recently learned you can't have a hive produced - you can't get honey from a hive and bee pollen. It has to be one or the other. So if you make a beehive just for bee pollen, you won't get any honey out of it. I thought that was interesting.

John the Savage 59:41
Oh, that makes sense now that you said it.

Matthew Blackburn 59:44
Yeah

John the Savage 59:45
Taxing those little guys.

Matthew Blackburn 59:50
Let's see. Do you want to jump into the questions because I feel like that might be like a good little segue into a lot of different avenues here.

John the Savage 59:58
Yeah, absolutely.

Matthew Blackburn 1:00:00
We have quite a few. Let's see. Yeah, so how often do you need to exercise per week to see physical change? You said you just do three to four, right?

John the Savage 1:00:14
Yeah, so that's three or four days of training and during those days, typically, like at least three of them, I'll have two sessions, one being my morning one, and then the other one being like a typical general, and honestly, anybody looking to just improve their fitness and therefore their health, I think like, you know, maybe three, going to the gym, or just like having some strength component of training, like three times a week is a great starting point. And maybe just honestly, like, there's so much talk about just cardio and zone 2 and all that jazz. But at the end of the day, I think most people would benefit the most from just going from like a short like 15 to 30 minute walk after breakfast, lunch and dinner, because that's just going to make sure that everything that you're eating is getting utilized effectively and it's just going to increase your steps overall throughout the day. And, you know, just, it's so low impact - it has added benefits to it and it really is something I don't have to like, obsess over, because there was a time where I was doing like, three hours of cardio on top of like weight training every day, and just dreading, "Oh, okay, I woke up now I need to my first hour I go back home, I go to class, I do my gym workout, I have another hour, and then I come back home, I have dinner and then I go on another hour." And like, that's such an awful mindset to have for a long time. And yes, you will get benefits but at what cost like at that point, I was starting to get like freakishly thin, like for reference I'm 6'4 and I think at that time, when I was doing that, I was down to like 140 pounds, like I was, I was not looking great. But I was like model fit. I will say that. So it definitely tickle the part of my brain but absolutely not sustainable. And I think whatever it is that has people looking forward to doing it, it's going to be like the greatest motivator. So for instance, you know, my morning workouts, I love getting out in the fresh air. I love the sentiment, love getting the ground and benefits and I just love messing around with like the 400 pounds of some odd implements that I keep in my car that my wife absolutely hates that we're driving around, and everything's rattling left and right. But you know that that gets me so excited and eager to work out that like helps me get out of bed. I think if people are able to find something akin to that, that really just drags himself into the gym. Like, you know, three days a week. It's more than enough and then just making sure they've walked enough throughout the rest of the days is the icing on top.

Matthew Blackburn 1:02:52
I love that. Did you ever have Supersoaker fights with friends growing up?

John the Savage 1:02:57
I have

Matthew Blackburn 1:03:00
That was that was my main exercise growing up. I mean, it seemed like every summer - just all summer would be out there running around the neighborhood. Now-

John the Savage 1:03:10
Supersoaker commando

Matthew Blackburn 1:03:13
Probably like three or four blocks we take over and just have multiple - in between like a couple of houses.

John the Savage 1:03:21
That sounds great.

Matthew Blackburn 1:03:23
We also have lemon wars because there are a bunch of lemon trees in Southern California and you know, we'd pick like lemons that are overlaid

John the Savage 1:03:30
Just throwing lemons at people. I love it.

Matthew Blackburn 1:03:37
We need to bring that back that and in water balloons too, had a lot of those, you know, I guess they have crazy contraptions for that now I think they have like -

John the Savage 1:03:48
There's a reusable water balloons. That's great. I cannot - like as much as I think like being a kid now would kind of suck, like having reusable water balloons and just being able to like help my friends like that's kind of redeeming.

Matthew Blackburn 1:04:06
That's awesome. But yeah, I like the going back to what you said the short walk after breakfast, lunch and dinner. I think that's really practical. And that's something I've been trying to get motivated to do. It's just you know, there's a juggling a lot here trying to you know, set up my house and property and just a lot of stuff juggling but just to even make the time for a 10 minute walk or something. I think, you know, there's no excuse for that. Although I do have to be careful because I see the deer and the moose fighting each other.

John the Savage 1:04:38
Oh my god

Matthew Blackburn 1:04:39
All the animals or you know, getting out and see mama moose with her baby calf and that's like the most dangerous situation right like a bear - bear and her cubs. So bring my bear spray in my walk.

John the Savage 1:04:56
Yeah, if I'm not mistaken, the effects of something as simple as like a walk after a meal like not saying high insulin after eating is bad, but like it can reduce insulin levels as effectively as something like Metformin. So, yeah, it's just one of those things that if you're chasing longevity and just overall health, it's such a small thing you can implement that's going to have like a pretty drastic benefit.

Matthew Blackburn 1:05:19
Do you think that's like a could be a primary cause of why people have like chronic gas and bloating too? And even, maybe constipation?

John the Savage 1:05:29
Oh, absolutely.

Matthew Blackburn 1:05:30
Not moving enough after they eat?

John the Savage 1:05:32
Yeah, mobility and motility, like, they're almost the same thing. Like those morning workouts like holy cow, every time I come back, like I'm already like, I'm rushing to go number two, just because like I've been eating so much. And like, I'm basically creating my own, like, peristalsis to get things moving. And yeah, it doesn't even need to be something crazy. Like, even if I'm just like foam rolling, or just basic stretching, or like we were just talking about walking, that's really usually enough to just help stimulate the bowels til empty.

Matthew Blackburn 1:06:04
Do you ever get into rebounding or like jumping on a trampoline?

John the Savage 1:06:08
I found one on the side of the road a few years ago, and I kept it in my garage gym, and I use it occasionally not enough to like be consistent and see benefits, but it's definitely fun. And I think that fun aspect of it is something that could help people get like, consistent with it. Of course, that's really important. But you know, just - just thinking about it, like bouncing up and down, like having that moment of like, weightlessness. And just like things moving like yeah, that's absolutely like another great option.

Matthew Blackburn 1:06:41
Yeah, that for years, like when I was doing that crazy, almond raw protocol with, you know, black coffee and no sugar and fasting, I was using a whole vibration plate. Okay, I think it was Dave Asprey's and I'd be drinking my hibiscus tea or whatever, fasting on it, you know, 15 minutes, but there were times where it made my entire - my whole legs was sore for a while after doing it. Like I just done a sprint, just basically squatting on it for 15 minutes.

John the Savage 1:07:14
Yeah, I'm sure like that vibration it's just like super potent like something that doesn't really have like a pump system to move it around something that's like simple. It's just like me shaking it, that's definitely going to help stuff around that I'm sure that like, you know, clears congestion, this helps ensure that things are flowing correctly.

Matthew Blackburn 1:07:35
This is a good one probably a common question. What if you're having trouble building muscle.

John the Savage 1:07:44
So typically, like I said earlier, if it was like, if I could either have like an amazing routine, and no recovery, or half a routine, or like a half decent routine, and 100% recovery, I would always go with the latter. And I think the training, as long as you're actually incurring enough stimulus on muscle to encourage a response. You're good on that front and there isn't like any rocket surgery that needs to be performed in order to like, see what the problem is, you should start looking at nutrition. And honestly, probably the easiest way would just be increasing protein throughout the day, like, obviously calories as a whole too. But just making sure that you're getting like anywhere from, I think, like, 0.8 grams per kilo, of body weight is a good starting point. And this is something I've experimented with pretty intensely over the past year, actually, I dropped my protein to - you know my weight right now is like 210 - 215. And I dropped it down to 100. And I was doing that for a like four or five months. And honestly, I didn't notice that much of a negative impact on my overall physique. But when I bumped it up to 150 and now I'm trying to get closer to 200. That's when I just started to feel like yeah, like it really is doing something in regards to recovery and like to feel like I'm putting on more tissue effectively. So yeah, if you're having trouble building muscle, eat more and just make sure that you're getting enough protein.

Matthew Blackburn 1:09:32
Yeah, I'm glad you brought up the protein thing because that's something I really wanted to talk about in this episode. Because I've done - I was fruitarian for a while getting pretty much zero protein for years, just like soaked nuts and seeds, however much of that I absorbed and we had a question. "What are your thoughts on essential amino acids?" Because I know - like I kind of progressed from taking like whey protein, forget if it was isolate or concentrate, I switched back and forth to like branched chain amino acids, which are the three. And then I discovered EAA's which are what I think nine amino acids.

John the Savage 1:10:16
Yeah., so the BCAAs, I feel like that's just like a for nine times out of 10, that's absolutely like a gimmick that's just been, like the cornerstone for half of what the fitness industry sells, EAA's are definitely a better option. When I was trying to do like a consistent full body everyday regimen. That's what I believe - I think I used like 10 grams of that makes it like orange juice, or just whatever kind of juice, that was high in sugar as an intro workout drink to make sure that even while I'm training, I'm not letting my body experience any, like drought of nutrition, and I think it definitely could play a role in certain situations like that. But more often than not, if your nutrition, pairing workout, just throughout the rest of the day is solid, I don't think that's something that you really need to like, invest in. But certain situations, especially for instance, if I - if I wanted to do more fasted sort of workouts in the morning, like I would just have like a coffee, a little bit of sugar and milk, and maybe I would dump in some EAA's just to make sure that you know, I have enough fuel to get through the workout without my body like really freaking out and starting to feel like it's starving.

Matthew Blackburn 1:11:37
Yeah, I'd imagine like the amount of meals someone consumes, like if someone's eating two meals versus three, it's probably harder to get to hit that protein mark, I mean-

John the Savage 1:11:49
Oh, absolutely.

Matthew Blackburn 1:11:49
Let alone 200 grams.

John the Savage 1:11:51
Yeah, and I think there's research saying that, you know, there's only so much protein that can be used in the goal of muscle protein synthesis per meal. And I think, like, spanned across like three hours, depending on your body weight, I think it was something like if you're 150 pounds, it's up to like 40 grams of protein for the purpose of building muscle, your 200 pounds can go up to like 50 and if you're 250+ you can use around 60 grams of protein, but, you know, it really is such a small thing, compared to the rest of your day, working out in such a small time that I think you should just focus more on ensuring that you have quality nutrition around, because the majority of like the fitness, influencer type of products, they just are - they exist to be served. They the benefit they offer is so small and yes, they can apply to like very niche like people in certain situations. So I'm not completely bashing them but for the regular person just trying to get fit. I don't really think that's something necessary. If you want to incorporate it, definitely do it like I do like have it as a juice maybe you have some sugar too, otherwise your insulin might get a little bit wonky, especially when you're exercising. But overall, I don't think that's something that, you know, people need. Is there a time when the carnivore diet can be beneficial? Like when there's no food around? When you can't get enough carbs? If you're kind of forced into it. I mean, maybe if you're like, really, really sensitive in the gut, and nothing else is working and you need like a starting point, at least I'm sure it can be effective for certain people, but even then you're not really addressing the issues. You're just kind of skirting around them. So yeah, it could be but there's definitely better ways but yeah, they do take more of an investment of your own time and research into figuring out like how to accomplish whatever fix you have to do.

Matthew Blackburn 1:14:01
Let's see - few questions on creatine. Does creatine actually help you build muscle mass? And how to prevent the water retention that happens from creating?

John the Savage 1:14:14
Okay, so yeah, they kind of answered their own question because yes it will help build muscle just because of the way creatine acts with like adenosine triphosphate, when that gets used up and becomes diphosphate creatine can jump in and immediately turn it back into triphosphate. So you have like more sustained energy more or less, but the water retention is honestly like kind of one of the benefits to it because that's just increasing the amount of water a cell can fold and especially if you're trying to achieve more muscle mass for more like - through like, you know, hypertrophy training and trying to achieve like myofibrillar growth, which is just like cells getting so big that you know, they tear and then they grow. Yeah, creatine will help with that. I don't think the water issue is that bad if you're experiencing it to the point where like, you know, your midsection is starting to lose definition, or you just feel like you're really like holding water. Like, for instance, like one of the easiest ways to check if you have like, issues with water potential is if you're wearing socks, and you - and you take them off. If you have like a mark from where the top of the sock was, that's usually a sign that you're holding, like a little extra water. If that's the case then, you know, maybe just take some like dandelion tea, because that's a pretty simple diuretic, having a little bit of apple cider vinegar, like I think a cup, or like a half cup to a cup worth about cider vinegar with water, just a little bit before you go to bed, like you'll be pissing like a race horse in the morning. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing because creatine makes you hold water.

Matthew Blackburn 1:16:00
Yeah, it's interesting about the socks - interesting thing I heard years ago was cutting the top of your sock, you know, that elastic band to increase circulation. But I don't know, how much of a difference that would make. I guess depends how tight the socks are, but.

John the Savage 1:16:19
Yeah, I mean, it's just like, one of those little things - with like a pair of scissors and as long as they're not like slipping down your feet after that, like, why not?

Matthew Blackburn 1:16:30
Right? Yeah, you're gonna say just go barefoot, but I don't know, there's situations where it's not always best, so-

John the Savage 1:16:37
Yeah, absolutely.

Matthew Blackburn 1:16:40
How to deal with joint and tendon pain?

John the Savage 1:16:44
Um, so I think something that a lot of people have a proclivity to do and it's just, they have an issue with, say, their elbow or their knees, or, you know, in my case, my back, like, my back has been on and off, like, an issue for a hot minute. But people get scared of that pain and that makes them restrict their movement, when in reality, they should be continuing to do - using those problem areas, except with better exercise selection, or just movement selection in general. Because when you're moving, you know, you're obviously increasing the amount of blood that gets to an area, the nutrition and the blood is ultimately going to be what helps repair things. So, you know, just don't be scared of moving, honestly, like, it really is like use it or lose it type of stuff. For instance, like, my dad's a great example of this, because back in Nam, he took like shrapnel to the leg, he blew out his back jumping out of like an AC 130 carrying an M60. And like, you know, he, for lack of better word, he's kind of been, like, trapped in his body for the majority of my life and it's awful to see. But it's just, you know, being able to move is - like mobility is freedom, in that sense. And I think the fear around it, it's such a, like bodily response. But the pain isn't necessarily like, oh, like, you know, something is getting worse and worse, it's just fear of your body, like expecting something to go wrong. But if you're able to, you know, effectively train it, and just work with it through ranges of motion, where it's actually comfortable and slowly progress and develop that strength again, in those areas, then, you know, we'll be able to recover totally, for instance, my elbow, my right elbow has been a bit problematic, because I was going crazy with push pressing for almost a month. And you know, I haven't had elbow pain for probably like, close to two years. And all I did was wrist movement, and like light tricep movement. And over the course of like, maybe like two weeks, the pain resolves itself. So it's - the worst thing you can do is just letting it sit there. And I think that's something that a lot of people need to accept. And yeah, you can do supplements and stuff, you know, you could do your collagen, increase your Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, because both of those are cofactors to developing, like, tendons and ligaments, but the main thing you should be doing is just not stop.

Matthew Blackburn 1:19:27
That's awesome. And there could be like a, maybe it's a combination of like, nutritional deficiencies, too, right?

John the Savage 1:19:34
Oh, absolutely.

Matthew Blackburn 1:19:38
This is actually a really good question, because tomorrow's show is on genetics.

John the Savage 1:19:42
Oh hell yeah

Matthew Blackburn 1:19:43
My friend, Tyler, and what are your thoughts on genetics, impacting your training style, intensity? And basically how you work out body composition. Like do you think that plays a role?

John the Savage 1:19:57
So I think that's only to like, you know, at least be aware of just for like the sake of conversation. But at the end of the day, I don't think that's like the biggest thing like, yes, certain populations can be higher or lower in myostatin, for example, like, that's going to be one of the most limiting factors in how much muscle you can grow. And other populations will have, like different ways of distributing fat across the body. But, you know, I think the main argument that people are trying to get out when they mentioned something like that is the difference between type one and type two muscle fibers, which is the fast and slow twitch. And honestly, although that's something that is obviously you get from your parents and whatnot, epigenetic factors, through training can actually influence them and can shift them from being more slow to fast, which so instead of being like an endurance athlete, you can become more explosive. So instead of like, you know, if you have like marathon runner, genetics, that doesn't mean you have to stay a marathon runner, you can train, you can eventually become a sprinter, because your body will adapt through the training and they'll be encoded into your actual DNA, which is very cool.

Matthew Blackburn 1:21:13
What are the long term effects for men taking injectable? Testosterone? That's a question for liver king, right?

John the Savage 1:21:23
Nah bro, he's natty dude. Just liver every day. Yeah, honestly, like, being someone that actually indulged in that dark side for a few months back when I was 22. Like, yeah, it's - it's fun while you're doing it, but literally, the freakiest thing, it's just like, what happens to that carrier oil? After it's done? You know, like you're shooting all that stuff. intramuscularly but that oil gets absorbed and like, the stuff that's actually dissolving it with the benzyl acetate and stuff like, where does that go? Like, how is that going to affect your body? Like not even talking about the testosterone itself with the means of how the testosterone is getting into, like, already, that's not a good start. But you know, something shutting down your own production is just going to cause atrophy of the gonads. And then, you know, if you're doing that, in hopes of like, alleviating an issue that spawned because of low testosterone, that's just putting a bandage on it. I think the majority of people, although it's going to be like a pretty arduous task, like I think it's absolutely worth, like trying to figure out the cause of that issue. Like why aren't you producing that adequate amount of testosterone?

Matthew Blackburn 1:22:43
Yeah, I think, is HGH, the same way we're taking that exogenously, decreases your own production. Now with a lot of things like melatonin that can increase your own endogenous production taking a supplement and progesterone, pregnenolone and those are - so it's not like across the board, all hormones, but a lot of them like testosterone, right?

John the Savage 1:23:10
Yeah, testosterone is definitely like the one that has like the most notoriety when it comes to that, because that will just absolutely decimate your own natural connection. Like if you do want to, you know, more or less take the easy way out. There's also HCG, which is like human, chorionic, gonadotropins - too many syllables by the way. But basically, it's like synthesized from the women - from pregnant women to urine and it's something that actually stimulates the balls dropping initially. And just having that at like a relatively high dose throughout the week, for months at a time can be enough to give the gonads the opportunity to just like, you know, get acclimated to produce an adequate amounts of testosterone. But like I said that again, just another band aid, I guess it's just gonna be maybe it's got a pattern, it's gonna be easier to pull off.

Matthew Blackburn 1:24:08
Yeah, it's definitely a lot of like, natural means that someone could try first, right? Like, sunlight or red light on the -

John the Savage 1:24:15
Red light is like, the easiest like thing to do, because like, you know, the main thing red light does is it just normalize the cells. So if you have an issue with cells, clearly not operating properly, give them a little help. Like before you jump to just stabbing yourself with needles, which is no fun, like how about you just whip your boys out, just get - blast them with a little bit of light like a few times a week and see how that goes for you.

Matthew Blackburn 1:24:43
This is a good one, how to balance a lot of lifting and tight muscles with stretching and flexibility.

John the Savage 1:24:54
So this is something that honestly the revelation of just like came suddenly to me, and it just made so much sense. But honestly, with correct exercise selection, you should be able to, you know, gain mobility and just range of motion as a whole. Because for instance, like, you know, chest flies and whatnot, like, I might not have like the best develop chest, but whenever I do chest flies, I'm making sure I get the biggest stretch possible in my chest. And I've never had issues with tightness in my chest. And that absolutely can be extrapolated to different parts of the body, whether it be your legs or your arms or your back, like, if you're making intelligent selection and what exercises you're actually doing. You can absolutely gain mobility as you're gaining strength without the need for stretching and stretching as a whole. Like, I'm honestly not that big on it, if I ever do it, it would be after the gym, and it's just kind of for fun, you know, just continuing like a trend of like moving as much as I can throughout the day. And it's just, you know, there's better ways to do to hit like two birds with one stone.

Matthew Blackburn 1:26:06
It's funny, someone asks, Can cats really build muscle because I put the picture of you with the cat head?

John the Savage 1:26:15
Yeah I guess if they're drinking enough milk they can.

Matthew Blackburn 1:26:19
What is a good piece of equipment to start a home gym?

John the Savage 1:26:24
Probably the most bang for your buck in regards for that would just be like a squat rack and regular barbell. That's also - yeah, that literally opens up a world of opportunities, especially when we start to think beyond just like the regular like planes of motion, you have a barbell, you can turn that into like a landline and start doing so many different movements - with that can do like a whole bunch of fun, like strongman type of stuff, you can use the barbell just to even like stretch out with and it's a great start. But yeah, honestly, just like a whole squat rack, a bar and then obviously, you need weights. Otherwise, I would probably say like a power tower. So that would be something with like a dip station and a pull-up bar, get some very quality bodyweight movements that you can start up with. And especially if you're new to fitness as a whole, really see and gauge how much of an interest you have in it.

Matthew Blackburn 1:27:23
That's great. And I think I asked you last year, it was like December or something about resistance bands, you were doing a live and I jumped in. And I think we might have had a question on that. But do you think that could be an alternative to, to bars?

John the Savage 1:27:44
I think it's, it's absolutely better than nothing. But it depends on what the ultimate goals of that person is. If they're looking to really develop a physique, I think they're going to have to go beyond that because there's only so much you can really do with bands despite like how creative you can be the way that that stimulus works and like the progressions with them, like you can only go so far. And if it comes to that, honestly, I would much or I would absolutely be more inclined to recommend like a kettlebell or something to those people. Like, I started this kettlebell journey, like within the past half year, and it's just become an obsession because it's, it's crazy, like the amount of stuff you can do with it. Even something as simple as like a kettlebell swing is so effective in recruiting stuff that otherwise just get stagnant because of just basic like life as it is now so much sitting too much being hunched over, like it gives you such a great platform to really begin developing like a fit body that will be able to like navigate through life effortlessly. And I think that's what most people should really be looking for when it comes to fitness. It shouldn't like yeah, it's great to look good naked. But at the same time, I think what's more important is not having to worry about like, you know, pain when you're bending down to pick something up or having issues just grabbing something up high or not being able to carry things so that - that has such a larger impact on your overall well being that you know, it's a bit sad to see that people forget that that should be their main goal when it comes to getting fit.

Matthew Blackburn 1:29:31
Yeah, it's kind of going into it for the wrong reasons, right if they're feeling like inadequacies and I don't know maybe they're bullied or something they're like, "Yo, I'm gonna get my revenge get huge" definitely has to be for the right reasons, right? And some people just don't want to get muscular, which I think is interesting. It's not necessarily a bad thing. Like what stuck with me at some of the Atom Bergstrom interviews have had with them, is, his really out there stories that are fascinating, but he's, I've asked him about bodybuilding and you know, he always says, "There's a difference between having muscles and str ength."

John the Savage 1:30:16
Yeah absolutely, actually strength is a better marker for like, all those benefits that come with fitness, like the reduction in all cause mortality than muscle mass. So at the end of the day, if you're doing this just for your own well being, strength should absolutely be the focus. But muscle mass, of course, when you have more of that, like, half the reason why I want to get to here is because then that means I can eat more or I can eat, that means more like nutrient dense foods, I can shut down my throat and not get fat from. So that's something that, you know, it feeds into itself and I think like, you know, past a point, like yeah, maybe you can start to focus on muscle mass, and it's going to have a lot of compounding benefits. But overall strength is definitely the way that people should go. And again, that isn't just like, you know, what's your, your bench max, or your squat max and all that, but just basic things like grip strength, being able to like, sit up and down with no problem, just being able to, like, my whole thing is just like being able to navigate through space effortlessly. Like, whenever I'm training, that's what's always in the back of my mind. Like, I want to be able to continue to move like this for as long as I can because I know that if I'm not doing what I can now, I'm absolutely going to suffer later.

Matthew Blackburn 1:31:34
Yeah, it's a good point. Let's see fat loss for women, we're gonna say fat loss in general.

John the Savage 1:31:45
So that's something that, you know, it's really funny to see because especially with women just because of the way that their hormones fluctuate throughout the month, there are like little intricacies like, yeah, you could be calorically restricting, you could be expending more calories than you're putting in. But, you know, maybe your estrogens high, your cortisol is high. There's other factors that are playing roles that could be stopping you from safely liberating fat. And honestly, I think the most important thing, when it comes to trying to effectively lose fat, is reducing stress, trying a new cortisol as effectively as you can. And just like trying to keep inflammation as a whole, like down. Like one of my favorite things, when I was like more aggressively cutting was I would take aspirin every day. And that's just obviously apart from like, the the thyroid type of benefit, like that was putting my body in a state where it could focus solely on recovery, or it could be close to homeostasis. So you know, that that was being used as energy when I'm just, you know, lounging around and everything. So, yeah, definitely the worst thing you could do is obviously just, you know, keep blasting cardio - upping it, upping it, upping it, upping it. And eating less and less, when, in reality, I think that's the best thing to do, would maybe like up calories a little bit, make sure you're getting all those nutrient dense foods that are preached about on the show every episode, and just ensure that you're not stressing out. Because, you know, if you're going to the gym, you feel anxious, you feel stressed, you don't want to be there, like, how do you think something good, it's going to come from that you're going to put your body in like a genuinely dormant state. And that's not conducive to like any goal.

Matthew Blackburn 1:33:36
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's a good point too, about cortisol, whether it's, you know, based on the cycle, or just, they're working a crappy job, or, you know, living in a stressful environment or stressful relationship, like, people could be stuck in a certain state physiologically of having like, maybe excess weight, just because of stuff going on in their life outside of like nutrition.

John the Savage 1:34:02
There's so many environmental factors that can like, you know, really bog down your body with that regard. Your fat is there to let your body feel safe. Like it is that thing that tells your brain like, yeah, if shit hit the fan, we can survive like, however long after this. And if you're constantly in that state, where your body feels like shits about to hit the fan, but you're still eating, why do you think that you're going to be liberating fat like you're obviously going to be trying to hold on to it? Naturally, cortisol goes up. What does cortisol do? Breaks down muscle tissue so it's like, it's a double negative, like you're fucking yourself up on both fronts, and it's just awful.

Matthew Blackburn 1:34:48
Made an explicit note now. Let's see. "How does he prepare his raw ground beef, or meat to eliminate chances of parasites?"

John the Savage 1:35:06
I just kind of do it. I don't really do anything special. Yeah, I mean I've been doing it for, you know, I was raw for like, strictly like almost three years and not once did I ever feel something like bumbling around in my stomach nothing ever came out with me that's not saying that like I don't have anything but you know, I've never had any digestive upset from consuming copious pounds of raw flesh.

Matthew Blackburn 1:35:36
An alien never like burst out of your stomach?

John the Savage 1:35:38
Nah

Matthew Blackburn 1:35:42
Started singing- Let's see what else we got here. "What most improves the metabolism?" It's like a really broad question.

John the Savage 1:36:03
Yeah. Honestly, like, this is something that I realized recently, that looking back on my own history and whatnot, but it's gonna be a very long winded answer. But um, you know, having those days of being a fitsta person and seeing like all the other health quote unquote, or rather fit influencers, like, it's so funny how big of a disconnect there is between like, the fit people and like those explicitly health people. But I've noticed that like the fit people usually turn more into health people and the health people turn into fit people. But just having that base foundation of fitness, just because you're moving more throughout the week, you're exerting yourself and you know, hopefully optimally recovering from it, that's going to be the best thing to do to increase your metabolism. Because yeah, you can take as much thyroid and other supplements as you want. But at the end of the day, like, you know, if you're just moving more, and your body's okay with you doing that, then you know, you're going to increase your - the amount of calories you can have, and your metabolism is going to reflect that.

Matthew Blackburn 1:37:22
What are the best workouts during pregnancy? Is that a good idea?

John the Savage 1:37:28
It depends. I've seen a lot of questionable stuff with pregnant women doing CrossFit. And that just looks like it's gonna give the baby like a concussion. But honestly, just making sure you're not stagnant. Just making sure you move and honestly, like doing anything is better than nothing. But of course, doing too much can be even worse. So you just want to find like a middle ground where you feel okay with what you're doing. Obviously, having that enjoyment factor, especially when you're pregnant is going to be creating like a high serotonin, save for your baby to develop it. Like if you're able to find activities that you genuinely enjoy, whether it be like just walking around, hiking, dancing, just stuff that really pulls you and compels you to do it. I think those are like the excellent choices you can make. And yeah, you can train if you're like, if you're somebody that just enjoys the gym, go for it. But just remember that you're not trying to push limits, you're just the way you are with that little one inside of you and you should definitely take that into consideration with exercise selection. How much you're willing to really put out in the gym.

Matthew Blackburn 1:38:42
Yeah, that's great. I wonder how much like I think there's so much that we're still discovering about how - how like a developing fetus is affected by what mom's doing. Like I was just hearing about melatonin how the - if their circadian rhythm of the mother is dysregulated like, maybe she's working nights or just isn't, you know, isn't getting bright light in the morning in the daytime, is getting blasted with artificial light at night that can actually like have a, like semi permanent effect on the circadian rhythm of the of the child that's developing so I need to have a whole show on melatonin. I think it's fascinating.

John the Savage 1:39:30
Yeah, it makes complete sense because that that is like, you know, those are the formative months and definitely what happens then it's going to be just a how you go about the rest of your life.

Matthew Blackburn 1:39:44
Best hydration drink post workout?

John the Savage 1:39:50
I don't know, with that, I'm kind of weird because I don't like drinking water or anything as I'm training. And afterwards I just have like a little protein shake with water. It's an opportunity to make some copper. But um, if that's something that you're really feeling like afterwards you feel drained or definitely tell that your electrolytes are imbalanced, definitely like coconut water with a sprinkle of salt or like, you know, maybe a scoop of the adrenal cocktail in there if you can handle it. And yeah, it's, it doesn't need to be rocket science, plain and simple, you're sweating, you're losing electrolytes, trying to replenish them as effectively as I can and do it in a way that agrees with your stomach. Because there's definitely some things I don't want to do like right after a workout, like, you know, having something super heavy to drink and you know, your stomach just finished not having anything in it. That's a pretty intensive for it to digest and, you know, just common sense.

Matthew Blackburn 1:40:47
Yeah, I used to hit the hemp, hemp protein powder pretty hard and that, that took me months to discover that didn't do well. My body just felt felt bloated and like it was just sitting there.

John the Savage 1:41:01
Yeah, there's been, oh my god, I remember - I think, like, Bob's red mill whatever that brand is, they have like a pea protein powder. It's like chia seeds mixed in it. And I got that once and just like, oh, yeah, cool, I'm gonna have another 15 grams of protein, it's my protein shake and like, oof, never again. But yeah, even with like all those protein powders, I finally found one that I'm kind of okay with, it's an 80:20 blend of casein and whey respectively. And I think that's really good because, you know, obviously, casein is like nicer on the body with like tryptophan and everything. But whey does have a purpose, like, for example, one of the things that it does is actually help regulate glutathione production. So as an antioxidant, postworkout has definitely helped balance out like the inflammation like just purposefully incurred on yourself. And, you know, ultimately, I would prefer to just have a whole food meal, but it's - I'm willing to take whatever consequences may come with it.

Matthew Blackburn 1:42:07
Yeah, I need to get back into the smoothies. It's just tricky being here in North Idaho, because the fruit selection, you know, have to go frozen, which is not necessarily ideal.

John the Savage 1:42:20
Still better than nothing.

Matthew Blackburn 1:42:21
Right. We have a question, "Are you familiar with the work of Dr. Michael Yessis? If so, how do you feel about 1 X 20 programs?"

John the Savage 1:42:35
I have not.

Matthew Blackburn 1:42:37
Okay. Yeah, I never heard of him

John the Savage 1:42:39
Yeah, 1 by 20 on the ceiling, like one set of 20 reps?

Matthew Blackburn 1:42:43
Probably, yeah.

John the Savage 1:42:45
I -- I mean, if there's a whole warm up to it, and using like a weight that actually like has, like, coming close to, like muscle failure by that twentieth rep, then maybe that would be good. Like, it seems a bit excessive. And honestly, I think there's a bunch of different ways that you're better off going out training than something like that.

Matthew Blackburn 1:43:12
Yeah. There's a question for me, what if someone just did pull ups and push ups? Would that be an a = and they're walking after meals would that be enough?

John the Savage 1:43:22
That would be great, like add some sort of like, squat or like, make some kettlebell swings with that, holy cow, you're set, that's great. Like, you have your push, you have your pull, and you have your hip hinge and like, that's going to get your back completely toasted, that's going to get your chest going and your arms. And yeah, that's, if you want to go like as minimalist as possible, thats great. If you want to, like take that to the next level, I think honestly, if you do like really heavy, heavy-ish kettlebell swings, and just pair that with like dips or something, you're set. Like, it really doesn't need to be rocket science and if you're really just trying to get like the benefits of strength, you can go pretty minimal and still get a lot of those.

Matthew Blackburn 1:44:10
That's awesome. I think that's - let's see, "Advice for an endurance athlete - how can I balance pushing the limits for physical stress?" I don't know exactly what that means.

John the Savage 1:44:28
So, you know, endurance athletes are definitely - I think consistently, there might be just a few screws loose with them because pushing yourself consistently to such an extreme limit is definitely going to be something that's hard for your body to recover from. But I think if you're able to, you know, have that one extreme limit, the - kind of like an isolated event. So for example, if you're a runner, if you're training up to that race without you know, doing like a marathon every day the week leading up to it and instead just like training yourself in different, like heart rate ranges, and having like, you know, having a more, having a longer day, having a shorter, more intense day and just like varying your training so that you're not constantly pushing yourself to the edge, I think that's a really good way to be able to achieve like some serious feats of endurance without having like, the negative effects associated with that. Because obviously, you know, if you're doing like really hardcore endurance stuff, your cortisol is going to be through the roof, even just running and whatnot that actually can increase endotoxin in the gut, just because of the - all the stuff moving around in there and that's what the reason why some like marathon runners kind of just, like spontaneously let loose, because their bodies are literally just voiding themselves and all that endotoxin. Yeah, like, definitely don't push yourself consistently hard. Really focus on programming your training leading up to whatever event so that you're getting a good enough stimulus and response from what you're doing. But you're not pushing yourself like constantly past barriers because you can absolutely increase your fitness within more moderate ranges. You don't need to go consistently crazy and push yourself to the limit if you want to be higher.

Matthew Blackburn 1:46:24
Have you ever - have you been friends with any like swimmers? Or like where that's their main form movement?

John the Savage 1:46:32
Back in high school, yeah. Swimmers - they are their little otters, man. The physiques they get are insane and like, funny enough, I think, a good portion of that it's just because of water, because the water is dispersing the heat. So they're increasing their overall metabolic activity by two ways, obviously, the actual activity and the fact that their bodies like keep up the heat. But yeah they - swimmers, like god bless them dude. Like I - Alba and I went to a friend's house on a lake and they have the buoys around the lake and I hit like one of the buoys like, I think it was like a 20 minute swim and like, a third of the way into it. I was like, "Why did I do this?" Like, this is - I feel like I'm sweating under the water and like, I'm drowning. Like my muscles are just on fire. But like, yeah, swimmers - swimming's great.

Matthew Blackburn 1:47:30
Yeah, I - I've always struggled with it. Like I took a YMCA class growing up and I think that I just almost drowned. I've always like just sank because my body fat was so low. And so when I got scuba certified for open water, like - like the first scuba diving certification, you have to you have to float or tread water for 10 minutes in a public swimming pool. And I couldn't do it and so I had to redo it and the instructor let me just float on my back. Which I pretty much had to just keep you know full belly of air or full lungs of air to keep myself buoyant. But yeah, swimming is one of those things I guess it's just getting down the foot little circles right to kind of stay stay hovering there. But I never did it. I mean, I probably should, having a lake. I guess I prefer just like diving under, like scuba diving. Scuba is so much fun, dude. Yeah. Have you done it?

John the Savage 1:48:43
Yeah.

Matthew Blackburn 1:48:44
Oh, cool.

John the Savage 1:48:45
Yeah, I got certified in like, my parents got me certified in sixth grade. Like they took me out to Mexico when we did it. It was a hell of an experience but yeah, I've done a few times and it's it's surreal.

Matthew Blackburn 1:48:58
I bet the visibility was pretty good.

John the Savage 1:49:01
It was gorgeous.

Matthew Blackburn 1:49:04
Most of my dives like it was in murky, like probably 20 foot visibility average, like, whatever 50, 60, 70 dives I did, but it's kind of fun because it's like an element of surprise because you can't see that far. So you kind of have to be more alert.

John the Savage 1:49:22
Absolutely.

Matthew Blackburn 1:49:24
I want to ask you, I think that's it for the questions. But question that came up for me. Like, Hot Cold Therapy? Like your thoughts on that because I know a lot of athletes use that as like a recovery thing - trendy.

John the Savage 1:49:40
I'm really big on sauna. I love my sauna, I bought a far Infrared one. I used to spend like at least 30 minutes of it after every day that I trained. But after a point I was just like, I don't want my body to get so dependent on like needing this for recovery. And recently like, honestly, just like a hot cold shower, like that's really enough to just help them - help the muscles, you know, blood vessels expand that flushes out like metabolic waste and all those byproducts that you aren't too keen on keeping. And then when you close it, everything constricts and it just whoosh. And I really think for the average gym goer, just like you know, nuking whatever body parts in hot water, and just like going cold for a little bit, nothing crazy, obviously, like it's just a shower, like not doing an ice bath or anything. But that's really just like a great way to get some big - get some bang for your buck out of the shower. Hopefully have the shower filter.

Matthew Blackburn 1:50:40
So you never got into like the ice baths or cold tub.

John the Savage 1:50:45
Very recently. I don't remember how old I was. But there was a time where I took a break from working out and when I got back into it, I was getting crazy sore every day. So I was doing really cold baths but I did that maybe for like two weeks max and you know, it's like, okay, I'm fine. I can work out without feeling stiff as a board after.

Matthew Blackburn 1:51:06
Do you ever feel like a brain buzz from that? Because when I was doing it, it would make me super high like for the whole day.

John the Savage 1:51:14
Like once recently my did sauna into like a genuine ice bath. Just because like, I think the grocery store we went to had like ice on sale, which still - buying ice just on sale. But I grabbed some I threw in the tubl and like after the sauna I chilled in there, I was like, wow, I - I can kind of get why people do this. But at the same time I - I'm guessing it was from like stress hormones and whatnot. So it's definitely not something that you want to consistently do. But yeah as a treat, why not?

Matthew Blackburn 1:51:51
See, I'm trying to think of what we didn't potentially cover. We didn't talk too much about carbohydrates like because you always hear if like carb re-feeding. That's mostly for like, keto people, I guess.

John the Savage 1:52:08
Yeah.

Matthew Blackburn 1:52:08
But carbs are a huge part of, of working out in bodybuilding, because it's like a muscle glycogen right that you need to refill.

John the Savage 1:52:20
Yeah, and of course, carbs are also protein sparing. So if you really want to get like the most bang for your buck from your diet, just including carbs like post workout, that's going to be a great way to have the carbs do some of the roles that protein can also do - so protein can actually just focus on doing the things that, you know, they can - that some protein can just do protein's job.

Matthew Blackburn 1:52:43
Yeah, that's an important message that carbs are protein sparing, because it seems like people - the Keto people don't want people to know that.

John the Savage 1:52:52
Yeah. Yeah, like I remember, like, you know, middle school health class, that being just like one of the things that people would mentioned regards to carbs, like, it's more than like a fuel service, like clearly if it's going to be able to jump in the place of protein. And obviously, I'm sure that's what's happening in the cases of like, some fruitarians, and some, like more plant based people, but, you know, why wouldn't you want to take advantage of that?

Matthew Blackburn 1:53:23
Doing it - like, is it dose dependent, like Ray's probably talked about that, but like, increasing your carbs increases the protein sparing.

John the Savage 1:53:33
I'm not actually too familiar with that but I know that on average, you would want to have like 5 to 10 grams of carbs per kilo of body weight. And I think pairing workout, I actually haven't noted that. Post exercise - one gram of carb per kilo of body weight every hour for four hours after like a really intense training session. So you know, you have that with your protein shake or whatever protein source you have post workout, you're using the insulin boosting effect of the protein, to ensure that the carbs are getting shuttled across the body along with nutrients that dies down and then afterwards, you know, that four hour window you have that again, just facilitates a very positive state for growth.

Matthew Blackburn 1:54:26
Did you ever utilize like the - my ground beef bowls with like, rice because that's what carried me through for years, like when I was lazy or just, you know, busy just throw together like, you know, ground bison or ground beef with you know, white rice or, or actual wild rice like butter and salt. That's fine. Like a lot of people were just really confused and overwhelmed of what to eat and so that's why they tend to just go for like, you know, the carnivore diet or something just because it's like stupid simple but it can still be simple and you don't have to miss out on like macronutrients, right?

John the Savage 1:55:06
Yeah, there's this one guy Stan Efferding, his nickname is The Rhino. He's an absolute tank, if not I'm mistaken, he's the one who came up with the term. He calls that combo, Monster Mash and that's absolutely like what it could be like, that's such a potent, like nutrient dense energy filled meal that you could have after exercising, that's gonna like get you, you know, refueled, it's going to be what turns into muscle, like, plain and simple.

Matthew Blackburn 1:55:35
What's his name?

John the Savage 1:55:36
Stan Efferding.

Matthew Blackburn 1:55:37
I haven't heard of him. Monster Mash, I love it. That's great. Wheres - was there anything we didn't talk about that you want to cover?

John the Savage 1:55:50
Um, let's see, I have a few notes.

Matthew Blackburn 1:55:55
So many directions we could go.

John the Savage 1:56:00
I'm going to try to spare you from just like shedding on like fitstagram as a whole, because that is just such a toxic hive of villany,I do not go there anymore. And, yeah, honestly, more or less, I just want to say like, the minimum effective dose for most people, when it comes to training is going to be enough to cause a very positive benefit in their life. The main benefits from training itself actually come from going as a not fit person to just be averagely fit. You don't need to be some like, elite level, elite level lifter or endurance athlete or anything, you just need to be able to move effectively and have your body do what it's meant to do. And, you know, you're gonna have like all those benefits in regards to like, you know, insulin sensitivity, you're gonna be able to eat more, like, able to keep moving throughout your entire life without issues. And yeah, it's just people really think it's rocket surgery. At the end of the day, it's not like our bodies have been crafted by our environment for so long and now that we have the opportunity to look specifically craft them, it's still is the same thing at the end of the day, and people try and overcomplicate that.

Matthew Blackburn 1:57:21
Yeah, yeah, that's so true and that's it. That gets people in a state of paralysis, right? When there's it's too complicated. Or they're just hearing everyone's saying different things. Like okay, I'm just going to do nothing.

John the Savage 1:57:35
Yeah, exactly. And then you know, obviously who you compare yourself to like, if, like I mentioned earlier if you're comparing yourself to like a bodybuilder like one of those crazy athletes doing like all these feats of strength, like how's that going to impact you mentally rather than like, how is that going to impact like how you decide to go about training - like not everybody needs to do that and that's not knocking on the people that love doing that, like all the more power to them but if you're just trying to be fit, if you're trying to not have issues with mobility later in life there really isn't much that you have to do to get those benefits

Matthew Blackburn 1:58:13
Yeah, I saw a guy doing a bench press underwater

John the Savage 1:58:17
I'm sure he was natty too, right?

Matthew Blackburn 1:58:25
Like - wouldn't it be easier because it's like less weight underwater.

John the Savage 1:58:34
Yeah, I remember Muhammad Ali used to train underwater, which is pretty fucking crazy but - I don't think benching underwater is going to be the hottest training anytime soon.

Matthew Blackburn 1:58:45
Get fitted up in all my scuba gear with my regulator and get down to the bottom of my lake and lift.

John the Savage 1:58:52
Oh man.

Matthew Blackburn 1:58:55
Yeah, I like the simplicity and yeah, just like easy starting points for people like just walking after they eat and what do you say if people don't like - because I've heard years ago, I think I heard an idea of like, moving every hour, like say if you work at home, like me and you don't have to like drive to work and you're just you have a lot of flexibility there than just every hour doing pull ups or every hour or doing push ups and kind of spreading it out throughout the entire day. But I imagine that has a different effect right then like putting it all in one hour.

John the Savage 1:59:33
It does. But actually that's a great way to develop strength because that's that practice is commonly referred to as greasing the groove. And that's basically just like priming your brain and your muscles to doing the same thing again and again and eventually just get more effective at doing it like back when I was a fatty like that's how I started to do like chin ups. Like I would just have a pull up bar at my door and every time I'd start with like one that slowly built up to two, three, and I was cranking out 10, because it's not, you know, what you put in, you get out. And even if it is, over the span of a day, you know, you're still gonna get that strength, you just might not get as much of like, an actual stimulus in regards to like, muscle development.

Matthew Blackburn 2:00:21
And why is that? Is it just, like, that's more if it's really intense, for an hour.

John the Savage 2:00:27
Exactly the intensity isn't - so you have like the overall volume, but the intensity because it's spread out, you're losing one of the factors that is like part of developing this.

Matthew Blackburn 2:00:40
Is that what's called muscle protein synthesis, or?

John the Savage 2:00:44
That is more so just how protein is used in the body to develop muscle as like a tissue.

Matthew Blackburn 2:00:53
You could tell I'm ignorant in that.

John the Savage 2:00:58
Well I hope I could've enlighted you about it.

Matthew Blackburn 2:01:00
Yeah, I'm learning a lot. I mean, my goal, I'm kind of succeeding here is just creating more responsibilities with running a little homestead by myself currently, and just adding on more things that are, you know, kind of prepping or whatever. But it's like, for a purpose, right? It's like, setting up a little garden where I'm gonna have to maintain maybe a little koi pond in there, you know, vegetables, fruit, and there's pruning, there's watering this, you know, maybe weeding and checking stuff. So just like, that's my goal ultimate - ultimately, is just integrating all these movement things throughout my day, where it's like, where I'm actually getting something out of it like that. I know you're getting something out of it when you're exercising, but just something tangible, you can eat, you know - eggs or something.

John the Savage 2:01:54
Yeah, I'm sure even just like lugging hay around. Like, that's something that you have to do almost every day, I'm sure. And that's something that like, over time, that's going to just get easier and easier because your body's making the necessary adaptations to it. Because clearly, it's something that, you know, you're not getting around to you can't cheat it, so your body's gonna be like, okay, so it's either, like, adapt or just continue having a struggle with it.

Matthew Blackburn 2:02:19
Have you ever chainsawed or chopped wood?

John the Savage 2:02:23
Oh absolutely dude, We had, we had like, you remember those austrees, like those trees that were like genetically modified, they would grow super quick the had on infomercials for them all the time. My dad was obsessed with them. And we have like, at least 20 of them growing on our like quarter acre property at one point and then I'm like, "Dad the roots are gonna grow into the foundation of the house, you know that right?" And then like, I literally watched the color just fall out of that space. And we cut them all down and him being him, didn't want to waste the wood. So I had to process a whole lot of lumber. So I'm definitely about the wood chopping life.

Matthew Blackburn 2:03:04
Wow. Yeah, I guess I'm learning all the lingo I didn't know there were all these words that go along with it. Like just cleared here off my deck, like a pretty large area. I don't know what it is, football field or something. And I guess the, the raw trees that are fell when you put them in what's called decking, and then you have to buck them up, which is basically chopping the - into rounds and then then you you have to split those rounds either by hand or with a wood splitter hydraulic machine. And yeah, it's - I don't think people realize how, how much goes into it. And I often do the thought experiment, like if I couldn't get gas or diesel, like, I mean, to do this all by hand without a chainsaw. That'd be be like a week long process just to-

John the Savage 2:04:03
Exactly. But that's absolutely something that people take for granted, especially with like, you know, you just buy wood and it's already pre cut and everything like people aren't thinking about like, you know how it got to that state, let alone when you're in a homesteading situation and you're the one responsible for turning it into that.

Matthew Blackburn 2:04:20
Did you did you grow up in the snow? Where it snowed or?

John the Savage 2:04:23
Nah, I mean, yeah, it snowed but like nothing crazy. We've had some like crazy snow storms in the past but nothing like North Idaho for sure.

Matthew Blackburn 2:04:37
Yeah, cuz I feel like for like five or six months, like if someone lives in the snow, especially at my latitude. Like - like yeah, you can use a tractor and a snowblower and you have different tools, hopefully. But there's going to be a point where you need that shovel to like, clear like like the steps or keep areas clear and - man that that worked me every winter that I've been here - in the last two winters, it feels like a full body workout.

John the Savage 2:05:07
Oh absolutely.

Matthew Blackburn 2:05:07
Just keeping up on the snow. I don't know what kind of movement that is, but-

John the Savage 2:05:15
Definitely full body. It's like, you know, we haven't gotten crazy snow but I have like a comically long driveway. So I've definitely been out there before the sun's up trying to clear it for my mom to get to work. And like yeah it leaves you absolutely gassed but the fact that you know, the weather does not care. And you're going to have to do that multiple times a season like that's, that's how you get that farmer strength for sure.

Matthew Blackburn 2:05:40
Do you do any yard work where you live? Like, do you have to do any weed whacking or mowing or?

John the Savage 2:05:45
So right now we're living in an apartment, but at my parents, yeah, because of my dad's situation. And my mom's my mom, I visit every now that I've just had to take care of all the landscaping and whatnot. So I still get to enjoy the smell of fresh cut grass on a summer's morning. And all the lovely poison ivy that just hides in our backyard. But yeah, I'm still getting that and honestly - that's just, I take such pride in like, maintaining my land. I feel like as an American, that's something that people should really enjoy doing and not like outsourcing. But um, yeah, it's just, it's little things like that. Really, like, if you just focus on doing - like taking care of yourself and your lands, like you will have probably an above average level of fitness.

Matthew Blackburn 2:06:40
Yeah, yeah, I recently started using the weed whacker more and just, I mean, it's a really heavy, it's a gas powered machine and that vibrates and just keeping steady. And it's amazing after just a tank of gas and that thing, how much that'll work out my arms. It's, it's unbelievable.

John the Savage 2:07:02
Oh yeah and definitely, like those static movements like that, like, you know, just fully trying to hold it steady, trying to like, you know, bring hay over and you got it in like a grip with your arms locked and everything like that's - people don't take isometrics with the respect they deserve, because that's such a easy way to like really develop strength. And it's something that like, you know, it's by no means glamorous, but it's absolutely effective.

Matthew Blackburn 2:07:31
Sometimes I have a thought like if I just went into my, my buck enclosure, like once a week, that's probably all I need to do as far as working out - funny experience where I was I hired a guy to help me clear out his - his straw in his enclosure because it gets really gross in there, especially with the male. And you know, I'm like I could go in there with my electric prod or a, you know, a blower or trying to keep away from you. He's like, no, no, I got it. And I'm sitting there on the other side of the fence watching and he ends up getting my buck in a headlock and they both dropped to the ground and I'm there like laughing hysterically and he's just fully winded after like the buck totally. I don't know how much he weighs right now but it has to be I don't know at least 300 pounds probably a little more. And he was just he was spent, he was dripping sweat and he's like, "I didn't know he was that strong."

John the Savage 2:08:31
Matt, if you ever need someone to wrestle it, you go give me a call

Matthew Blackburn 2:08:39
I'm just grateful they don't have like sharp teeth, you know, they don't bite. Right, oh my God! That'd be a nightmare. That's funny. Yeah, what other questions - so you said you don't really drink water because I tend to mostly drink water when I wake up that's like one of my bodies seems to crave it the most and you know, maybe before bed.

John the Savage 2:09:03
So I was like strictly the - I curse a lot but I was the CEO of "Gang fuck water" for a very long time. But recently with just, you know, I'm out in the sun, I'm exercising, I'm sweating like an absolute pig. And honestly like I come home and I use the glowing IC pad and I imprint my water and you know it's kind of like a win-win because one, I'm hydrating and two, I'm getting whatever like fancy stuff I'm imprinting which is usually just like BPC 157 and TB 500. Just to help my joints and whatnot. For as wowo of a technology as infoceuticals are I definitely notice a benefit like my shoulder gives me like periodically issues but what I'm really consistent with that water and the fact that I'm having it on more or less an empty stomach, but first or second thing in the morning, like I really notice just like less pain, better range of motion, all that. So I think honestly, the only thing that's got me drinking water is going nicely now, which is kind of fun.

Matthew Blackburn 2:10:18
That's awesome. Yeah and for people that aren't familiar, like at a show - can't remember his name. Anton? Yeah, that's it. Yup. Yeah, it's just this little blue thing, right that that's USB charged, and then it's connected to the website. And then you could run, as John said, infoceuticals in it, which is essentially like the energetic signature of whatever substance you want, whether it's aspirin or, you know, hormones, progesterone, you could put in your water, or peptides or whatever.

John the Savage 2:10:34
Anton Federinko? It's like cyberpunk homeopathy, that's the way I heard about it.

Matthew Blackburn 2:10:57
That's awesome. Let's see if there's anything else that I wanted to - seems like you had a lot of notes there.

John the Savage 2:11:08
Yeah, you know - gotta come prepared.

Matthew Blackburn 2:11:10
Was there any other topics you want to hit?

John the Savage 2:11:13
I mean, honestly, I think I actually managed to sneak like every one of my little notes into the responses I gave. So yeah I'm pretty satisfied.

Matthew Blackburn 2:11:25
So are you - are you planning on working with clients? Or do you currently, or?

John the Savage 2:11:31
Yeah, actually, I am in the finishing stages, like setting up johnthesavage.com, where I'll be offering services like nutritional coaching, because at the end of the day, I have a NTP. So you know, nutrition was the first fancy letter by my name that I got - funny enough, not exercise, but you know, I'm definitely with 10 years of like, personal experience. I'm very well, we're - very well versed with that stuff. But um, yeah, I'm going to offer nutritional coaching and I'm going to make customized training regimens and training blocks and just like a combination service of both of those, and also consultations, so if you're interested, you like the cut of my jib, check out johnthesavage.com and yeah, maybe I can really improve the quality of your life by gaining the freedom your body deserves.

Matthew Blackburn 2:12:29
That's awesome. I love it. Well, yeah, I highly recommend you guys check out his website. When's that going to launch, you think?

John the Savage 2:12:38
Definitely, by the time this comes out. Yeah. Like we're just finishing like the last little tweaks on the website itself and should be good to go in no time.

Matthew Blackburn 2:12:40
Oh, great. Awesome. Right on. Well, yeah, thanks, man. This was really fun and I learned some good stuff. And I'm inspired to, even though moving constantly and I have the perfect space to go out and ground and do more nature walks. So it's just always a balancing act right with work and trying to research and produce content and juggle all these areas of life.

John the Savage 2:13:17
Yeah, that is for sure.

Matthew Blackburn 2:13:22
Right on, well stick around as we close out the show. Thanks, John

John the Savage 2:13:25
Awesome. Thanks, Matt.

Matthew Blackburn 2:13:33
That is a wrap for today's show. John really inspired me to move more consistently, I have a fully off grid, homestead and right now it's summer. And even though I don't have to clear snow, there's still a lot to do tending to my goats, my chickens, I have to clear my solar panels every once in a while with the hose to get all the dust and dirt off of them. And just general maintenance on the property, which I really enjoy doing. It forces me outside to get sunlight on my skin and my eyes, getting fresh air. I mean, to me all this stuff we shouldn't have to think about. But because of modern living and working in an office at a computer indoors, we actually do have to make an effort now to get sun in our naked eyes and to move our bodies. And I've just integrated since speaking with John, walks after every meal, just a short 10 minute walk. And that's made a world of difference in how I feel. My digestion, my energy, my mood. I'm really blown away by just a 10 minute walk after breakfast and after lunch even just twice a day has such a powerful effect. My friend Tyler Panster actually just shared a study that a 10 minute walk after eating is twice as effective as a prescription, anti diabetes drug, Metformin. So it actually helps glucose get into the cells without the help of insulin. Which is incredible and that's just a simple 10 minute walk. That blew my mind, just the importance of timing, your walk like that, to get that huge effect. John also inspired me to purchase a kettlebell I had one years ago, and I wasn't consistent with it, I just did the basic kettlebell swing. But I feel really good using that just two to three times a day. So I love that these things don't take a ton of time. It's just spacing them throughout the day, and you don't have to spend hours and hours in the gym. I think if you're looking for a very basic place to start those post meal walks, and just a simple kettlebell, I'm doing a 30 pound one to start out - is great. And I'm already feeling the benefits just doing that for four or five days. So if you want to book a consultation with John, you can go to Johnthesavage.com. I'll put the link below to that. He's on Instagram, he has great free information on there - different exercises that you can do. And if you want to work with him with nutritional coaching, or personal training, or both, then you could check out his website. And my website is matt-blackburn.com, you can check out my CLF protocol under blogs, and then under shop, you can see all of my recommended products that I use, I've been so busy upgrading Mito Life, my brands that I haven't had much time to experiment with new products. But I am still loving that somniresonance SR1, also called delta sleeper. On my website, I started using my generation 2 Oura ring again, because the third generation, the only one you could buy now has that melatonin suppressing, green light coming out of it - that's very bright, in the middle of the night. So I found my old one that doesn't have any green and I've been tracking my sleep again with it on airplane mode. And whenever I use that somniresonance, that little PEMF device that goes under the clavicle, I'm just blown away how good I sleep. And if I wake up too early or wake up the middle of the night, it's just a simple press of the button. And it always knocks me out and it's not going to work for everybody. Sleep is one of those individual things that I'm really fascinated with. You have to experiment with different things. I think the combination that John shared of the nasal dilator with the mouth taping at the same time is a really great place to start. And if that doesn't do it, or you want to get crazier, then you can combine it with something like this, the SR1 and do the nasal dilator, the mouth tape and just see how good you feel the next day. To me the sleep stuff is the most fun because it's the easiest to quantify. You know how you feel when you wake up in the morning. And I'm about to get back to mouth taping actually tonight. And I fully shaved my beard because the mouth tape does not work with beards. And to me the mouth taping always worked better than the nasal dilators. But experiment - do both, do one or the other and find out what works for you. So my company, as I mentioned is Mito Life and I'm working hard to basically revamp all of the products by the end of the summer. Everything will have been upgraded. So I'm really excited about that. People have been begging for smaller Vitamin E capsules. So we're going to switch over to those and come out with a freeze dried beef liver product and some other exciting products that are coming up really soon. Check out the Mito Life Academy, that's my private YouTube where I put up two videos a month - it's $15 a month, you get two videos and a live Q&A the last day of every month where you could ask me anything and hear my up to date research. I tend to listen to these educators but then I put the dots together myself and have discussions amongst my friends and my girlfriend And, and just bounce ideas off of each other. And I think that's how we learn best, it's not just by following the leader, and I encourage everyone listening to me to do the same and experiment and find what works best for your body. So thanks for listening, I'll see you guys next Friday and stay supercharged.