Joe Rogan Experience #996 — Dr. Andy Galpin Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Yes, and we're live. What's up, man? How are you? why it grows, shrinks, repairs, dies, and all that crap. definition we're always evolving in that sense but it's quite funny how the central tenants are And I never know who's right. to break down on Aristotle's reasoning. And you should be doing what Arnold did when he was at your stage, not at his stage.

2:39 Or how come it's not working for me? Especially when a fighters in camp is more important than anything more important even in skill work, right? Cuz you already know how to fight just so Yeah. answer is the problem to begin with we're having the wrong conversation with all of this crap three days out a week out some of them get really anxious if they don't get to practice a skill.

5:37 more than anything, when they walk down to that cage or particularly two or three days before, Especially when you look at experience too. and collected and I saw everything and I'm nervous that I'm not nervous enough. So I had to get him Oh, there's a lot we can do. horrible shit, Right now it's a little bit different approach. don't say that. is getting taken advantage of you, that can have a real problem with your energy. And especially if

8:55 You're working with him. who's a really tough guy, very awkward, energized by his performance over mursad bechtik which is an amazing comeback that was incredible even with a seasoned guy like Dennis. needed to do um but it was just the from my perspective as a scientist one i try to stay Was it psychological? Was it physical? That's the thing But he looked a little bit like he was getting

11:32 the tape let's go through it like right went through so i want to be careful not offending Yeah. You can get them in incredible shape, I'm not seeing them 12 hours a week. You give him a protocol? like, this is not my full-time job. Like my full-time job is to research muscle physiology. muscle research we do are focused on disease prevention or treatment, right? So how do we

14:29 a couple of people and they're like, this is fantastic, et cetera, kind of the ball gets but the vast majority of what I do is a lot of conversation. So I spend a lot of time on phone The first American ever female to win gold in wrestling? She was down 2-1 with like 30 seconds to go in the semifinals, came back and won. You have to go up. who also had that 15-time straight world title.

17:14 He works with Barnett. Let's all put our heads together. And all of us have to be focused on her. So actually, it was like a year of issues. And she was basically almost flatlined on her iron. Damn. things that keep you from not being sick, that's also the stuff that actually harms Is that what you're saying? going to give you every advantage possible to not probably get a cold.

20:02 Vitamin C absolutely really yeah yeah what what's the toxicity And so you say the opposite. What does that that mean do you mean zinc doesn't help vitamin c absorption or doesn't help iron absorption iron so zinc actually Right. basically is i mean the basketball players probably had something but like she's a wrestler she didn't called me she's like i want to do opening ceremonies. And she called me. She's like, I want to do opening ceremonies.

23:16 I'm like, okay, fine. but her body not freaking out. It was a shit show. Like what kind of stuff are you using? Well, we're going to have a different approach to your training than when someone says you're getting out strength here. So we do that thing where you put the mask on them, make them run? So it tells us basically your maximal cardiovascular capacity.

25:52 There's a point of diminishing returns somewhere around 60. that you need to spend that precious training time on. yourself oh yeah yeah well it's it's the of, like, sometimes they just want another answer, which is not, like, you're just not good enough. And we can have them do a variety of jumping tests, moving tests, lifting tests. the size of uh i don't know small coffee table yeah and then there's two of them back to back

28:12 But if it took you one second to get there, and it took me a half a second to get there, Who knows? force you produce because his strength numbers were high squatted a lot he deadlifted a lot put them on a drill where we say, okay, the goal of your training is to maximize how quickly you And that's really what we can tease out. Now, how much of speed and athletic performance is genetic

30:38 hadn't done anything in 35 years. So we had this exact question. Wow. That's crazy. Identical DNA, I think he was a truck driver or something. So what are the differences in their body types? part is the fiber type the trained athlete and his quad was 90 slow twitch 10 fast twitch How does it not favor a guy who's exercising constantly? that's probably not enough to save the muscle capacity.

33:23 Tom Platt should live forever. Can't walk. If you trip and you're about to fall to catch your whole body mass from falling. getting off the toilet is a maximum effort squat, I'm more likely to just keep in my chair. one of us would agree, if you want to be as healthy as possible, you need to do a variety of training. How well do we do when we're hungry?

35:57 So, like, are you manipulating diet to make people perform better when they're cold? Right. That's not going to happen. Like here you're ramping up for September 12th. boom, we have a protocol, let's get ready. But then after the fight's over, then you might be working on very specific balancing exercises or that kind of stuff. Misha Tate had him on her podcast.

38:26 Anti-ice makes sense to you or no? that right afterwards. Bingo. Yeah. And why? Well, because your body has time to recover better probably more probably four to six oh okay why not why mess with it i read i read something like manipulate things and figure stuff out and contemplate and well that's why I'm so busy and there's creativity involved in it too because you have to kind of like manipulate things and figure stuff out and

40:37 I have to defer. have a tremendous amount of crowd chamber research so i'll have to say well actually i should say for an endurance athlete does that make sense yes but i'm gonna i'm gonna make it worse oh no And that allows you to train more But real is perceptive right right within five hours. Yes. Yeah. So this one I believe was immediately post-exercise.

43:34 Right. Do you find that that's the case of diet as well? Like I am a big proponent of But most of us would say, oh. In fact, when you said variability, I assume you mean having a wide variety of foods in your daily. That is absolutely true. Yes, it is i mean what you're highlighting is a real issue and it's also one of the reasons why there's a lot of what i would call confidence men out there and i don't use that in a good

46:12 way. We know what we're doing. And you really start believing, like, okay, this is going to work. But I think for some people, clearly, like, some diets fit better. explosion, it seems to me like a lot of fats and fish oils and things along those lines, especially at the volumes that MMA fighters are on. to go back to the other side of the spectrum.

48:43 that's potentially problematic. functions better on them. Well, so here's a good example. I mean, I don't know Dom, I have not seen this because he was talking about a host of different cancers that thrive Well, what kind of cancer? But the vast majority of high-intensity exercise is powered by carbohydrate for most of us. Well, you have carbohydrate directly in the muscle cell.

50:51 So if you're doing bicep curls, you're burning glycogen from the bicep fiber, not even the muscle, but the individual fiber that's contracting. has to be go through lipolysis, It's not a belief. my biggest message is. It's not like a right or wrong thing. There's been specific athletes. Some do. Even during training. physical performance well most specifically for rehydration purposes too okay so all right because

52:35 So when we're going through an athlete who's six weeks of coming down in calories, I'm generally on board with what he's saying. if it comes with a compromising of vegetables. She had a real physiological crash. boom weight just flew what do we attribute that to a combination of physiological to 60 ounces a day of fresh pressed vegetable juice and just like clockwork every day.

55:49 we do that right it's the other dicks that do it i think you're right it's like everyone else is Now they know. walking them through the science blah, was like going through, But you know, the three-hour videos are hard, man. Well, I did a five-minute video. That's videos why the first one was like a five-minute video No. filling up like David Goggins type character no I mean we have so the the

58:43 And is there also probably a psychological factor in there as well so therefore you're not looking for it really hard. and 20 years of research suggested otherwise, you'd have a very hard time getting through review I talk about stuff I'm not an expert about all the time. Can you think of anything that has changed other than the fiber types that's changed the way people look at things recently because of technology?

1:00:40 And for decades, basically, you say that doesn't actually exist in humans. position here. And that's probably the biggest one. Now, when you're dealing with athletes, People have come and said, hey, will you test me and tell me if you think I can go down to 55 or 85 or something. Jorge Masvidal is a perfect example. There's been a ton of fighters got outpowered by a guy like chris weidman what's the line in the sand you draw where you say okay

1:03:09 man like it's tough he's a classic example though like there's this almost i mean i gotta be careful Man, it's crazy. And when you get to the top, like nobody, well, rarely people win more than they lose. everybody's waiting in line to fight michael bisping he's probably gonna fight george st pierre everything to make it a business he did and like 90% or more fighters would have just been like, no, I'm out.

1:05:21 Clips him and knocks him out. But he's being so scrappy. He's very skilled. He's not like towering over Weidman or Rockhold. Yep. big factor it's a big factor and then he could push a tremendous pace and then keep it going Yeah, he could say that, but he doesn't give a fuck. He's undeniably tough. No, he's not. He fights for a world title. Well, she's a fan.

1:08:10 yeah well beat johnny hendrix yeah i i i'm not i'm not a big believer in that decision You know, like what? Where's that at? but yeah, that's probably fair. Yeah, get in, get your money, And what does Bisping typically do But that stamina, like, is dependent upon activity. is a lot of what happens in that fatigue is either psychological or it's bad weight cut stuff.

1:10:29 decide to compete at that weight. That's what I mean. Like if he stays there, he's probably fine. Right. sure. that's not to say I would never use it. Do you believe in any of those machines or anything? dirt you mean pat commons yeah sorry it's okay for people not listening yeah i don't know but of pool work can be really helpful if they have access if they can't um no one has ever not loved

1:13:31 you're a, you're a knee pain, you're, you're a busted ankle waiting to happen. So I'm not and they don't want to take Yeah. Right. It's almost like doing a lunge or something like that you have to be able to get work in without getting extremely sore so hills are a great example Okay. So it's a bunch of different stuff. Yep. That's why you need to do a combination. Okay.

1:16:09 them to do though? Well, so that's the thing is I don't, I don't think that stress is necessary. Now, what modality do we want to use today to introduce that insult? As a general quick statement, yeah, absolutely. No. So it'll effectively think of it like a heart rate monitor, If you lose your variability and it becomes beat, beat, beat, beat, beat,

1:18:35 It's based on performance, the coach, the athlete, when I've been around them. So I would never have the arrogance to step in and go, okay, this is the volume you're at, Chris. And honestly, the first time I work with them for something like volume, I generally would just shut up and watch. camp around then i can have a feel and i can go back at the previous notes and go well this is

1:20:32 But they don't get that out. That will not improve your power at all. now if you're using it for conditioning, fine. strength is it's along the same sort of lines what you're talking about the strength is essentially you take a big rest and then you do five again and you take a big rest. He was awesome. Um, well, we'll have to back up for a quick second depends on the goal right strength if goal pure strength is the goal

1:23:16 Or maybe you could do two, but you couldn't do three or something like that. Right. So now you did the same total repetitions, but 10 of them were done after full rest, Or power or speed. And they'll help you up. to maybe improve muscle mass. People love to do that, though. weird it's very strange because mma training is, it's still in its infancy, right?

1:25:38 of cardio. I mean I'm watching them getting coached and they're beating the shit out of them. really yeah we get a lot of that pro athlete that doesn't eat vegetables. Ooh. Yeah. We've got a whole nother conversation. Like, oh, we don't do I'm like, back the train up. Like, you're sparring six times a week. Got it. It's not very exciting if I come up here and tell you,

1:27:57 Your body's not that sensitive or insensitive enough where it can't convert something from something to something else. When Dan Gable was young, he pretty much outworked anybody. You know, he's just fucked up because of it. So if that gave him that extra mental confidence that he needed to perform better, well, then it's hard to say that it wasn't necessary.

1:29:46 sugar to your diet it's a good thing like no one's gonna say that right but what you tell And they're not conceding. No, no, no, no. Exactly. But there's a key word you said there, which was excess. And plus fiber. Yeah. And quantities that would never happen normally. know what sugar is bad don't eat it it actually causes a generally good effect on people they go

1:32:06 whether it's through breads or pastas or actually sugar and soda itself. We need to come together and say oh, okay. Well, here's good. Here's bad about it. Here the pros and cons, etc they might actually have an allergy to those things. to eight week lifespans, like I mean, you bring up a good point. It is very clear. So I have an analogy called the cook, the baker, and the chef.

1:34:13 Yeah, yeah, all that stuff, bodyknowledge.com. So do you know what the difference between baking and cooking is? Right? Yeah, throw some whatever that you give them mishmash, right? how many jalapenos, all that information. Like I can't implement it. like it's too complicated, I don't have that much time, et cetera. So giving people the information

1:36:38 Half a cup of this, a tablespoon of that. Like, I can do that. Or the opposite. you can go, okay, well, how much protein exactly? them as far as their diet goes do you actually tell them what they should and shouldn't eat This one. don't react well when this happens but generally i don't you know when you say like protein do you You have eight ounces of halibut.

1:39:21 Tell them what to eat. Again, it's not about me. Wow. quotes. Everybody's like, You're like, oh fuck do I guess do I eat fat or not? He felt like I'm so confused like I'm just gonna keep searching because there's there's this one thing steam them. Let's eat them fresh. Let's eat them raw. There's pros and cons to all this. something. But the hard part about extreme variability is lack of control. And so

1:42:42 you could look at it and be like, oh, this guy's an idiot. You, of all people, know they're real. Mostly. So it's the opposite of acid. Pretty easy. Right. But there's no studies currently. Absolutely. Right. Uh, and this is, uh, Brian McKenzie. I keep bringing him up, but he taught me this lesson. yeah again this is me highlighting my mistakes so So, but then I actually, you know, funny enough, paid attention to what he was

1:45:39 So I'll come back and I'll finish this in. They don't have that option. And so they learn to breathe through their belly and use their diaphragm Was it you? So we did that study. But you can change the setting. ran to exhaustion, which took them five to eight minutes kind of thing. If, for example, you went under the high restriction, so you're like, and you can't get any air in.

1:49:11 You might need heavy. say, I'm going to run a mile and a half and record my time. And put that thing in your mouth as kind of workouts am I doing with this thing in my mouth? in between the ribs can you actually strengthen those to the point where i mean that's a huge Someone put him in contact. And he's doing all the things. So this is how impactful some of these breathing things are.

1:51:34 but he is the one that can say, Oh, yeah. so that's more akin to what some would call the breath of fire. It's really good. So I've been working with that company for a couple of years since they got started. has got this system developed now where uh like it's that's what he was john the first one he did It's situation-based. of carbon dioxide buildup and if I don't let you dump it, then you're going to fatigue a lot faster.

1:54:49 rate goes way up without actually doing a lot of physical work. And so for MMA guys, this is what allowed to breathe through your nose. When you breathe Why does your body produce more nitric oxide when you breathe through your nose? Yeah. But so again Potential but Like, there's a lot of stuff. It's like, wow, yeah, it's great for this. But there's got to be some sort of benefits in terms of recovery, right?

1:57:33 Yeah, I'm sure they're going to find a lot. work because of the way i train i get really hot and sometimes we'll train specifically with a like a hot yoga room. Well, there's a couple of things to that. I've done a lot of that in my life It was awful. But everything was open. Oh, that's what it was. Yeah, so super super hot now Yeah. So it wouldn't be a daily thing.

2:00:09 in your fight and it's temperature controlled, you're not used to that pace. So if you're used I'm going to spar 10 rounds so that I can go five easy. Physiology, dude. The way I always say it is, truth is mostly a lack of perspective. you pretty sure uh now quantum mechanics physics those get kind of weird right but for the most my heart if I gave someone the wrong advice and it ruined their career. Like that would be the

2:02:31 and things like that, And they're going to go out there. I don't want to do that for somebody so that they can make an extra million right on top of this like it's continual progress. And, and by like, I take Karl Popper stance on this one in So we get closer, and we know more. Then those are things I'm comfortable saying this is basically true. all these things, right? This is 1952, 54, something like that. And he's a scientist, PhD.

2:05:22 And so they bring in all these lifters, and they put on this demonstration in front of the whole school and in front of dr karpovich and and uh everyone's like cool they're great they're strong and standing backflip. And at this point, Karpovich isovich is like oh like my entire career is that strength and then we get less and less and less wrong. Look at this study.

2:07:09 He looks great. Oh, man. It's crazy. Huge. managing fighters now or something No, he looked fantastic. Yeah. I just signed a buddy of mine to his. He's doing, do you know he's like managing fighters now or something? It was like 150 rooms or something like that. It's getting close with Conor McGregor. He's one of the rare guys. Oh, that's terrifying.

2:08:49 Yeah, record. It's a Wikipedia record. I believe he was planning a comeback a few years ago, 50. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Kevin was actually over my house. I do. but this is the anomaly much income could you make in those 10 years of working probably more than that 100k well in terms You're never gonna make that real like life-changing right? We're just talking about money though in terms of damage

2:12:36 reasons to retire but if yeah if i tested you across the board and you were terrible at everything Over long periods of time. Or we did this type of training for six weeks. We think we are addressing this problem. Can we Yeah. And then we also looked at this other thing. like repair. So the nucleus is really interesting because the more nuclei you have, the faster you recover.

2:15:40 Well, working right now through it, a lot of people are. Well, we used to think like if we stopped training in this and the room gets smaller the mononuclear would allow for the muscles to get bigger. Is it on Amazon? the quality of the paper is all part of the reading experience. Yeah, maybe that'd be good. Oh, we have so much. What's it called? basically we as humans

2:19:22 yeah So because of that, we started perceiving and focusing on different shades of blue. external environment like nature. So what are we not being exposed to now that we could be exposed So if we look at the dopamine rush that And it's a problem now, but really the book is about wait 20 years. Thanks, man.