Much of the project I'm working to release this summer for ADHD (& general mental health & performance) focuses on dysregulated cortisol & circadian rhythm

Proper Cortisol/Circadian regulation is king, yet modern society's set up against it in nearly every way

A Useful Thread: Let's start with Cortisol, mainly known as the "stress hormone", which isn't inherently “bad.”

Yes, "stress is the silent killer", but not because cortisol in itself is bad, so let's go line by line what it's essential for & why we MUST regulate for mental health/performance:

How much protein is actually enough?

- A nerd thread on protein intake by BroTiedOx Something I get asked once every 45 minutes is about how much protein specifically to eat a day beyond the general “1g per pound of bodyweight” golden rule

There is a slight difference between what is “optimal” and what is “sufficient” for muscular growth (an amount that most will never notice outside of actual bodybuilders, & even then…)

A lot of people struggle with getting enough protein at the 1g per pound of bodyweight goal, but in all reality that’s actually fine.

The actual minimum amount of protein to still experience good (but maybe not maximized per se) muscle growth falls in the range of .6g to .8g of protein per pound of bodyweight (call it the minimum effective dose if you will)

Pretty much all the data shows that you’ll be fine & grow/maintain from this amount (especially if higher carb as insulin is very anabolic/protein sparing)

So if you weigh the 180lbs that my average male reader does, then all you’d need is around roughly ~110-140g/day to be in a safe area to still get great results.

Next slide please

My current heart health stack:

- 1000mg citrus bergamot split 500mg AM/PM for lipid profile

- 8000fu Nattokinase split 4000fu AM/PM for anti-clotting/anti-thrombotic/plaque reduction & lipid profile

600mg CoQ10 split 300mg AM/PM for decreasing oxidative stress & enhancing… https://t.co/GDys7RKjb2twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Curcumin:

Nattokinase: https://t.co/R6zY7uZuxu

Citrus Bergamot: https://t.co/FEbG9PBJH0

CoQ10: https://t.co/ftfejDWkXL

Salmon: https://t.co/c7MJhZttiuncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31670973/
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

Unfortunately, there’s an assault on our hormones by countless endocrine disrupting agents in our environment.

Nearly impossible to avoid most.

You have to take proactive action against this or your hormones will suffer

Hence decreasing testosterone levels for decades

More 👇 An easy fix is using more glass than plastic, hard to eliminate but at least eat, drink, & store food in glass.

Educate yourself on what’s out there & better solutions for products, just don’t get super neurotic

Lifestyle needs to be on point bc we are playing at a disadvantage

Down the rabbit hole of taurine and cytoprotective effects.

Taurine can potentially protect cells against harmful agents like free radicals.

Where this is very interesting is taurine seems to have the ability to protect healthy sperm production against toxins. Have fun:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24262488/

Turmeric/Curcumin Thread:

Curcumin is a compound within Turmeric, a spice widely used in Asia (one of the main ingredients in curry)

In this I’ll just reference curcumin.

Both have benefits, most data is from turmeric with high concentration of curcumin or curcumin alone. Curcumin has some pretty significant health benefits with very few potential side effect.

There is a good amount of evidence showing it can help conditions from arthritis to even depression.

Let’s look at

- Health Benefits

- Side Effects/Safety

- Dosages

A short thread on the Principles of Muscle Growth: There are no “rules” for building muscles, just some people physiological parameters you must meet:

- Work the muscle in the 6-20 rep range

- Aim for 2x a week frequency for each muscle

- Increase reps or weight over time

- Take your lifts to close proximity of failure

Fat Loss, many of you struggle with this, many of you just need a simple system & make this a reality soon than you think, but longer than you want, that's life

Here is a thread, follow this advice and you will lose 1-2lbs of fat a week, potentially 2% or so of body fat a month 1st Step: Estimate How Much You Actually Need To Eat!

We are going to use a TDEE Calculator, this estimates your total caloric burn throughout the day & is fairly accurate.

If we eat less than this number, PRESTO, fat loss

I suggest this one: damnripped.com/tdee-calculato…

I’ve trained with 1 set per exercise all the way to 5+ sets

The number I’ve found that works best is 2 sets broken down in a heavier “load set” (6-9) & a lighter “back off set” (12-20)

You’re working the entire rep range & signaling growth without doing more than necessary With the heavier set first you see maximizing mechanical load, this is your bread and butter of progressively overloading.

Then on your 2nd, lighter set you are working in higher ranges thus getting a better pump (another mechanism of muscle growth)

Anecdotal testosterone ranges:

800-1200ng/dl - optimal, will feel the all the positive of having high T

700-800ng/dl - still in a good place, wouldn’t consider TRT, high “normal”

500-600ng/dl - “average” won’t feel many high T effects but not “low”. TRT *might* be considered 400-500ng/dl - you are entering “low normal” low t symptoms will start to appear. Need to look greatly into optimizing, personally would start TRT if lifestyle was optimized

<400ng/dl - this is low testosterone you will be missing out on a ton of quality of life. Fix immediately

Glycine Thread:

Okay, many of you have seen myself and others take glycine and have asked why and what does it do.

I hate writing threads, but instead of writing a short substack post, I will write about it here. Glycine 101:

Glycine is an amino acid, 1 of 20 that your body uses to create proteins for various uses in the body

Glycine is considered "nonessential" however it'd be foolish to think we don't need it

Glycine is 1 of the amino acids used to synthesize creatine within the body

It’s been pretty amazing to watch my moms own health transformation.

Our loved ones are sometimes the last to listen to us, which is frustrating, but I’d never give up, it’s my mom.

Last year, because of her weight issues and other factors she almost died from C-19 She obviously knew that I know what I’m talking about, but never listened/always had excuses.

This was her wake up call and she had a lot of recovery (renal damage, luckily was reversible)

This is when everything clicked and she started listening.

Upper/Lower Program

bowtiedox.substack.com/p/3-day-a-week… Full Body Program:

bowtiedox.substack.com/p/full-body-pr…

Where I would start if I knew nothing about DeFi

1. Buy some ETH on an exchange

2. Learn how to send it to cold storage

3. Get a MetaMask, learn how to connect and send to it

4. Buy something like SUSHI and learn how to stake

5. Read and learn LP’s and Impermanent Loss

👇👇 6. Learn the other ecosystems, AVAX, SOL, etc.

7. Buy their native token

8. Use a DEX to start swapping for other coins on these ecosystems.

9. Learn how to lend for APY

10 Learn how to convert tokens to LP’s

11. Do your first “safe” farm.

12. Never take leverage

To be honest, at advanced levels of lifting you have to know what “takes you there”

Intensity is both a measure of load and the way you attack your sets.

For the latter, you need to find that place, for some (myself) it’s extremely dark, some it’s silence, others it’s happiness I know 0 impressive people that don’t have “that place”

Somewhere that pushes through the pain, takes your mind off the actual weight

Most large dudes absolutely have a screw lose in the gym

There’s a level of mentality you have to have for getting truly impressive physically

Time to tag the top 5 best transformations for the $100 each @MTSNutrition / Outright Bar Gift Cards.

I actually had a group of people give their feedback for the judging so I have zero bias here.

So here they are threaded: Number 1: @BowTiedCamera

No caption needed.

https://twitter.com/BowTiedCamera/status/1453670193188818953

A Short Thread On Strength Training vs Training for Muscle Growth:

I thought I’ve explain this well enough but maybe not.

Strength and muscle growth aren’t inherently connected

Yes a bigger muscle is always a stronger muscle, but a stronger muscle is not always a bigger muscle Strength Gains happen the most effective at lower reps, working with a higher percentage of your 1 rep max. Think 1-5 reps.

This actually has less to do with muscle than is does neural adaptation.

Your brain because more efficient at moving the weight via motor units.

Let's talk training frequency and performance: (A Rare Thread)

The reason volume (in terms of reps and sets per session) doesn't inherently equal growth is simple.

This is because LOAD or the amount of weight done over the weeks is what really matters.

I digress 👇👇👇 Training frequency matters for muscle growth even though some literature will say it doesn't.

They state 5–10 sets per week are suffice for growth and you can just do it all in one session and be done, growth has been optimized for the week.

There are major flaws here.

The most important factor to trigger muscle growth is mechanical tension.

By applying weighted loads through a full range of motion you apply tension to the muscles.

This causes the stimulus required for your body to utilize its adaptogenic response, triggering muscle growth. This is caused by applying proper time under tension.

You will get the adequate time through the 6-20 rep range.

This is around 40+ seconds, though total reps are the main determining factor.

This is why the mind-muscle connection is so important.

Fitness is a means to an end.

That end is typically a combination of 3 things:

1. Aesthetics
2. Health
3. Performance

Any program or training philosophy is just a tool to achieve that goal result.

There is no 100% absolute answer, as it is simply a game of preference. To caveat off this, there are more optimal approaches to specific goals.

Some will work better than others, this is simply a fact of biology and physiology.

But it is all nil if you cannot follow a program to achieve your desired results.

Lifting 1st Thing In The Morning:

This is a very popular subject I get asked about all the time.

I want to talk about this and break this down because there are right and wrong ways to do this.

If you’re going to do it, make sure you’re doing it optimal and safely.

Thread👇 First I’ll go over the pros and cons

Pros
- Lifting is done first thing.
- Gyms are less busy
- Start your day off strong

Cons
- Not properly hydrated
- A hard workout can mentally tax you (I’m worthless for a few hours after leg day)
- Fasted weight training is suboptimal