How do I set up a peaking phase for a powerlifting competition?
About once a year, I find myself wondering how to change volume and intensity in the month or so leading up to a powerlifting meet. Does it have to be more complicated than gradually dropping the volume and adding low rep high intensity exposure, and how individualized does it have to be? What should happen to the volumen and intensity of the accessory movements during that time?
Recent RCT on vitamin D supplementation for respiratory illness: Thoughts?
Whenever Vitamin D was discussed on the podcast, my takeaway was that it's useless for most people. A recent RCT [1] apparently found significant reductions in the incidence of respiratory infections for the cohort supplementing vitamin D. Does this update your opinion on this supplement at all? Why or why not? 1: https://ijmpr.in/article/the-role-of-vitamin-d-supplementation-in-the-prevention-of-acute-respiratory-infections-a-double-blind-randomized-controlled-trial-1327/
prior dietary patterns effect on your choices today
I find that the way i eat prior to how I'm eating today effects my cravings/appetite. If I eat pizza and McDonalds every day for the last 7 days then shift to eating a different pattern thats more homecooked meals today, then there is acutely a higher tension on adhering for today, however the important thing I want to note is that the difficulty feels transient, as in if I then keep eating that way for lets say a week, that new prior timeline of eating makes eating that way easier, and reflecting on that makes this whole process much more reassuring and makes me more adherent, my question is, is this normal? Im not saying its easy... but it is kinda reassuring to know that you wont feel the inclination to eat a meatlovers pizza at rpe 10 forever, it does seem like that dies down if you give it some time (and not understanding that it gets better I have to assume dings a persons confidence in the process or there self efficacy cause the first day your shifting the pattern does not feel super great)
Is there such a thing as "too low" LDL/ApoB?
Hi docs. I have two doctors in my life (my PCP and my cardiologist) who cannot seem to agree on whether there is such a thing as an LDL/ApoB that is too low in the context of primary prevention. I've reviewed what I could of the literature and honestly it seems as much a question of epistemology and risk management as science or medicine. One doctor argues that the evidence from clinical trials and from people born with certain genetic mutations shows that levels at or lower than that of a neonate are, at the least, not harmful. The other argues that we don't have multidecade evidence of what happens when we reach those levels in humans through pharmacologic intervention rather than genetic mutations. Without making this about my specific case, how do you think about an issue like this?
Does acupuncture do anything?
I recently came across a report stating that acupuncture was found to be more effective than placebo by performing it under anaesthesia and measuring "pain" via EEG if i understand correctly (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14693608/). This prompted 2 questions: a) is it valid to equate brain activity to pain experience like this? and b) is there any plausibility to acupuncture at all for treating different kinds of pain?
a question on behavior change
hello guys, is it normal to not feel motivated to do a task before doing it, and is it normal for people to usually get the motivation retroactively (they get the inclination after starting), I feel like the answer is yes but for some reason I feel like asking as a sanity check. this can relate to exercise, study, socializing (really anything i think)
monounsaturated fat
I appreciate the recent cholesterol update, specifically the influence of P:S ratio on serum cholesterol levels. Recently, I have been tracking my food intake for other reasons, and the ratio reported on my app was absolute trash - heads up to everyone out there that polyunsaturated fat content is not mandatory for USDA or NCCDB reporting (the databases used by many apps), so the apps are frequently not reliable for this specifically. Anyway: what's my actual question? What do we know about how monounsaturated fat plays into serum cholesterol values, and is there a similar M:S ratio?
How to improve cardio with very limited time
Recent BBM+ subscriber and loving it. Coming out of 10 years of a very sedentary lifestyle due to mismanagement of career and family stressors. Also, I have neglected cardio my whole life (40yo). You guys have convinced me to do better. A few months ago, I started jogging, easing in by going at a very slow pace. Due to my own excuses, I can only reliably get two sessions a week for cardio, about 30 minutes each. Occasionally I can get a third session in. My current strategy has been to pick a jogging pace I think I can sustain for the ~30 min. This has been okay and “working” (going from ~13min pace to ~10:30-11min pace), but I’ve stagnated. Would you recommend a different strategy within the time constraints I’ve given?
Exercise and ADHD Meds - any programming changes?
Is there anything different in your approach on programming if someone takes ADHD Medication (especially stimulants)? I sometimes read that more cardio is recommended if someone takes stimulants regularly or that heavy lifting or strenuous exercise should be avoided if someone took stimulants before the training session. Are those things you would also recommend for someone who is on a normal therapeutic dose? Is it fine to lift heavy weights while someone is on stimulants?
Ramifications of universal healthcare
Can you provide your speculation on what the ramifications of universal healthcare might be? Aspects such as: what would funding look like? The possible effect on Dr. Baraki as a practitioner? Etc. Thank you for your thoughts and thank you for all the great content.
Flu/COVID Vaccine Season - General Questions
I did a quick search on the forum and found some things from ~2021, so apologies if this has been asked/answered before. But tis the season to get these. I, without fail, have the same symptoms after the COVID booster every single year (Moderna in my case) - my joints hurt, I have a headache, sweats, muscle aches (like DOMs), and generally feel like hot garbage - these are all things that in my day to day life of training 4-6 days/week I do not have - what's that about? Is my immune system doing its thing in the least pleasant way possible? I remember (right or wrong) that there was some guidance when these rolled out to avoid pain killers/fever reducers (ibuprofen, etc) - is that still the case? Would really love to have some pain reducers next year. This year I scheduled my shots (flu/COVID) for after my Friday session (last session of the week) - but are there any reasons to not train after shots? I've generally pushed through if I happen to have a training session the day of/after the shot. I remember there being some weird guidance to avoid activity for a week or some such nonsense (again, from early on in the vaccine roll outs, so likely outdated).
Range of motion issue
I have a client with very limited external shoulder rotation (but excessive internal rotation) and poor hip flexion. Interestingly, his son, who also trains with me, presents with a very similar posture, which creates significant challenges in exercises like pressing, deadlifts, and deep squats. My questions are: Could posture and mobility restrictions like these be influenced by genetics? And since introducing exercises in a reduced range of motion and gradually increasing the range hasn’t brought much improvement, do you have any suggestions or alternative approaches for addressing this?
Tracking conditioning progress with its own metric
Do you think that a metric similar to e1RM (for strength purposes) can be successfully applied to track conditioning progress? I was thinking about utilizing distance, time and average heart rate of a cardio workout to calculate an estimated arbitrary conditioning unit: eACU = (distance / time) / avg.HR
Deadlifts for Hypertrophy
Of the “big 3”, why do you think the deadlift is so contentious in regards to being a good exercise for hypertrophy when the Romanian deadlift is often regarded as a staple for hamstrings in a hypertrophy program. Obviously there are differences in the movements but surely not enough for these to be at opposite ends of the gains spectrum?
Bad training programs
Given that a wide range of intensities, frequencies, volumes can "work" for a variety of goals and many can be considered good programs, how can you identify a bad training program and what are the traits that would make you classify it as such? Can you give some examples?
progressive loading in the context of general development
hello! I like the way you guys conceptualize general development, my takeaway from what ive heard you guys say about it is ideally you have your general movement patterns (squat, hinge, row, press) and you do a different variation for each session. Basically if you have 4 presses programed in they will all 4 be different variations (and the same for all the other movements), the other aspect of general development is the rep range exposure (maximal strength rep range, strength stamina rep range, strength endurance rep range) my question is, did you guys mean that you would have someone do all 3 of those general rep ranges for all of the movement patterns in the context of a week? and would a general development program still lead to adaptations with so much variation? im guessing maybe the rate of adaption would be slower but your also getting way more exposure to more stuff which i think is good (sorry for the long question lol this has been on my mind for a while)
HEDS and HSD
What do you think are the unique training considerations for someone with hypermobile EDS or Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders? There is a lot of vague advice for people with EDS that they should do strength training, but it's often phrased as "gentle strengthening," which is somewhat incoherent and not very actionable. Other than utilizing autoregulation, how do you guys think this population should be training? Thanks!
Recovery chances in terms of non-traumatic injury
What's your take on the permanency of non-traumatic injuries like disc herniations or sciatica? I have colleagues at my IT job dealing with chronic back pain, and their doctors are pushing the classic narratives of 'degenerative disc disease,' 'pinched nerves,' and 'bad posture' being the root cause of irreversible damage. I know this 'wear and tear' or 'body-as-a-fragile-machine' model is outdated and generally unhelpful, but I'm just curious if there would be extreme scenarios where incorrect posture or very assymetrical movement patterns could cause permanent issues. Outside of a severe, traumatic event, can a person truly cause permanent, structural breakdown just by moving 'incorrectly' over time? Or is it more that the 'damage' seen on imaging is often just a normal, poorly correlated part of aging, and the pain experience is largely driven by factors like: Load management (too much, too soon) Fear-avoidance beliefs Other biopsychosocial stressors Basically, when people talk about being permanently broken, are they describing a busted piece of hardware (the spine), or a software issue (the nervous system's threat detection) that can be rehabbed with graded exposure and education?
How to think
For context, here is an excerpt from the book How Minds Change p. 98. "In the end, epistemology is about translating evidence into confidence. By taking what we believe and then sorting through some kind of system for arranging, organizing and classifying it againts the available evidence, our certainty in a truth should go up or down". Q1: Please share your own personal way of determining if a claim is true (and to what degree). Imagine a scale of certainty from: I would bet my life this claim is true vs the claim being false. Q2: If you could have one question (perfectly) answered about anything, what would it be?