Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 348: Crush 2024 with these 14 training, health, and productivity tips!
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Welcome, everybody, to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast.
As always, I'm your host, Danny Matranga, and in this episode, episode 348, I'm going
to be sharing with you 14 of my favorite training, health, and productivity tips for the year
2024.
These are things that I have picked up across the last year that I think are worth taking with you into the year 2024. These are things that I have picked up across the last year that I think are worth
taking with you into the year ahead. Specifically, we'll be discussing things like aerobic training,
the ideal frequency for training in the gym with weights, how to keep your resistance training
progressive and simple, good ways to incorporate mobility and breath work, how to incorporate plyometric work, footwork, and
intrinsic foot health work, my preferred way to incorporate things like hot and cold exposure
to take advantage of the various benefits associated with each, my favorite cooking
tips, my favorite shopping tips, my favorite fruit and vegetable inclusion tips, as well as some
things for managing screen time, substances like alcohol and cannabis, and maximizing
productivity to encourage more family time, reading, and learning. I think that you'll
find these tips very helpful in setting you up for a productive and healthy year ahead,
and I'm excited to share them with you. Enjoy.
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So getting into 14 training, health, and productivity tips for the new year, for 2024,
and borrowing from Peter Attia here for tip number one, and this is the idea of building your
aerobic pyramid. And again, this is borrowed from Peter Attia. And to put it simply, your aerobic
pyramid is, as is the case with all pyramids, a triangle. The bottom, the width of that pyramid is your aerobic base.
This is essentially your sustained aerobic fitness, how well it is that you can engage
with low-level aerobic training for extended periods of time or steady-state cardiovascular
fitness. This is your base, quite literally, because it is the lowest form of aerobic fitness one
should develop.
This is zone one, zone two, and zone three.
Why I think it's important to build your aerobic base is because it is going to enhance the
quality of your training, your cardiovascular system, your circulatory system, your pulmonary system, all of these
different systems and subsystems in the body, all of these different tissues from your veins,
your arteries, your alveoli, your capillaries, your mitochondria, they all benefit from low-level
aerobic training. And developing that base, that foundational component of your pyramid
is going to be great for your health your pyramid is going to be great for your
health.
It's going to be great for your recovery.
It's going to be great for cognition.
It's going to be great for blood pressure.
And it's probably going to assist long-term in the mitigation and protection against various
forms of disease.
Now, the peak of this pyramid is obviously, with most pyramids, narrower, more focused,
less broad, and that is the peak level of aerobic output. So for many people, this would be the
highest level of aerobic work they're capable of doing, meaning sprint work, which is more anaerobic,
sprint work, which is more anaerobic, but the output's very high. Imagine work done close to your maximum heart rate. And so when we look to develop our aerobic pyramid, you could actually
just use the shape of a pyramid as a guide. The width, the base is wider, so we're going to spend
more time there. The peak, the point is narrower, so we're going to spend less time there. However,
we want a broad base and a very high peak so we can get the tallest and most stable pyramid
possible. Again, this is an idea borrowed from Peter Attia. So when engaging in your aerobic
training, I think you can look at things like walking, low level to moderate level, walking,
think you can look at things like walking, low level to moderate level, walking, cycling,
spinning, rowing. I might've said this hiking, swimming, things that keep your heart rate between let's say 60 and 75% of your max. That's the work that's going to build your base.
And I like to aim for around 150 minutes a week. And you know, if you have seven days in a week,
you could pretty much just break that down to like 20 minutes a day. And you know, if you have seven days in a week, you could pretty much
just break that down to like 20 minutes a day. So walking with a weighted vest, going on a hike,
hopping on a bike, hopping on a rower, um, doing some stairs, doing some incline walking. These
are things that if you do 20 minutes a day, we'll make a really big difference. And I think
committing to like small daily movement is reasonable when the movement is
of low enough intensity.
So even for those of you who have like a lifting goal, a strength goal, a physique goal, this
could just be like a 10 minute warmup and a 10 minute cool down.
That's typically how I will program this work for clients.
As for the peak of that pyramid, um, I would recommend not like just going to the track
and sprinting, but, you know, tools
like assault bikes, rowers, where you can have high levels of output and a ton of, you know,
let's call it reduction in technicality by just being on a machine. This can work really, really
well for this type of work specifically. How much of this work you do, I think ultimately depends on, you know, your current
fitness level. But if you did 20 low level minutes of aerobic work per week, and you made the goal
of adding to that 10 minutes of, you know, high level peak work. And I know that doesn't sound
like much, but that is essentially like six, 10 second sprints
spread out across most days of the week. You'd get pretty close to 150 minutes with most of it
being low level and some of it being high level. And that's probably the best way I can think of
to structure the development of your aerobic pyramid. And that is a great tool, a great goal,
a great framework for developing better cardiovascular
cardiopulmonary health in the new year.
The second tip that I have for making 2024 one of your fittest and healthiest years yet
is to engage in resistance training three to five times per week.
I don't think most of you need more than that unless you have the goal explicitly of
competing in a bodybuilding style show. But I have a very simple guide for determining how your
workouts should look like. This is the this is the easiest way to determine what your workout split
should be, whether you're working out three, four, or five days per week.
If you work out three days a week, you might as well do total body training focused on mostly
compound lifts with a day in between. So something like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, total body,
mostly compounds. If you can work out four days a week, I would recommend upper lower training
sessions twice a week each. So upper lower with a day or two of rest in between,
followed by upper-lower with a day or two of rest in between. Again, focusing more on compounds,
but we can sprinkle in some more isolation work. Now, if you have five days a week to train,
I would follow the same framework as if you had four. I would just make sure that that final and
fifth training day is allocated towards
filling in the gaps. This can be more isolation work. This can be the stuff you specifically want
to develop, which I would assume you're pretty clear on if you're willing to commit five days
a week to training. And if you do a 10 minute cardiovascular warmup and a 10 minute cardiovascular
cool down spread across three, four or five sessions, you'll get pretty darn close to capping
your aerobic base and getting, you know, where you want to be there. It really can be that simple
in terms of, you know, figuring out what your workout split should be. But the reason I like
three to five is because I think three to five is really reasonable for most people. And I think
if you do a 10 minute warmup and like two to three compound lifts and
maybe two to three isolation lifts, you can probably get that done in under an hour. I've
been training for quite some time, so maybe I'm more efficient and, you know, I might be a little
bit biased in this prescription, but I can do five to six lifts in about 45 minutes. And, you know,
I still include quite a bit of work for the frontal plane,
transverse plane, sagittal plane, explosive work, plyometric work, et cetera. So I would
definitely recommend, um, if you are somebody who's interested in lifting that you start with
less than you might think you need and focused on primarily what works best. Um, a third tip
for getting stronger, healthier, fitter, and more productive in the new
year, um, is to, again, sticking with that theme of lifting, keep it simple, but train for progressive
strength. A lot of you train with too much volume, too many exercises, and you never actually get
stronger. Getting stronger for natural lifters is one of the best ways to build muscle and promote progress
And I would argue that like a high volume program executed in the absence of like gaining strength
Versus a low to moderate volume program that's focused exclusively on gaining strength
Even though one might be labeled hypertrophy and one might be labeled strength
The athlete who does less volume that's progressive
Will probably build more muscle than the athlete who does a ton of's progressive will probably build more muscle
than the athlete who does a ton of volume and is just trying to survive. So I would really,
really focus on including some strength specific work on these compound lifts.
And I think for general population clients, athletic clients, hypertrophy clients,
just getting started clients, this works so well in 10, 12 years of doing this 11, 12 years now. Um, I'm
pretty confident that focusing primarily on progression and strength across the big lifts
and like the four to eight rep range should be what you focus on for the beginning of these
sessions. Uh, a fourth tip that I think will really, really help. And this is a great tip for sleep, for mobility, for mindfulness is to do prior to going
to bed 10 to 15 minutes of combination mobility and breath work. And this is something that I'm
borrowing from a few different people. The mobility work, we can say we're borrowing from Kelly
Sturette and we'll say that we're borrowing the breath work from Dr. Andrew Huberman. And I should say it's Dr. Kelly Sturette, by the way.
But I like the idea of doing mobility work, low central nervous system mobility work. So not
stuff that's going to just like crush you. This can be things like stretching, foam rolling,
holding positions, breathing in positions that are challenging for you before bed. Give yourself a definitive time
to do this work. I think that if you carve out 10 to 15 minutes before bed, where so many of you
are watching television anyway, or on your phone anyway, and you can stay watching television,
it might be hard to do this while you're on your phone, but you incorporate a 10 to 15 minute
semi-specific mobility routine.
One of the most common questions I'm asked is, do you have a mobility routine or what's a good mobility routine? And when it comes to mobility, as is the case with all training, it helps to be
specific. You should have an idea of what tissues of yours most need mobility. But if you do not, and you are like most people doing something
for the ankles, hips, thoracic spine, shoulders, those are the areas where if you enhance mobility,
you'll probably see the greatest and most disproportionate gains in your movement quality.
So when it comes to putting together a more global mobility routine, I would do something,
putting together a more global mobility routine, I would do something, like I said, for the ankle,
like a combat stretch, for the hips, like a 90-90, for the thoracic spine, like some form of extension over a foam roller or a thread the needle, and something for the shoulders, like
dislocation with a band, or again, any type of articulation of the glenohumeral joint.
again, any type of articulation of the glenohumeral joint. If you combined a couple of those movements each and every day, you know, post-exercise, prior to bed, wherever you can fit it in,
I would imagine that most of your movement quality would improve pretty markedly. But mobility is,
in many ways, like learning a language. And small, frequent sessions, in my opinion,
work better than long marathon sessions done
semi-regularly. I would work on your mobility one to two times a day in smaller sessions,
and I bet you see better changes in your mobility over time. I like to pair this with breath work,
specifically this double inhale exhale, this that Huberman talks about so very often,
this CO2 release that is very, very common and very, very much consistent with a reduction
in nervous system activation. It will get you to a peaceful state. So maybe in between each exercise, you take 10
to 15 seconds to do three to four reps of a double inhale followed by a long exhale. So
double inhale through the nose, long exhale out the mouth, maybe do five to six reps of this,
and then move on to your next exercise. I think combining these things will help you get your
nervous system to a place where you can sleep better. And really, I think that's what we're
after. The fifth tip I have for you, again, to improve movement quality, mobility, and just the
way you feel in your body is to incorporate more low-level plyometric work, more sprint work that's
appropriate for your fitness,
more coordination and footwork, and spending more time barefoot. Over time, we lose connection to our feet, and we've spent 200,000 years as a species barefoot. One of the strangest things
we've done in our evolutionary timeframe is spend like 99.9% of it barefoot, like 200,000 years of human evolution.
And, you know, we didn't start wearing super cushioned, highly cushioned, narrow footwear
until more recently. Um, if you look through the past, you'll find, you know, sandals, you'll find
relatively low cushion shoes that didn't have toe boxes that allowed the shoe or the foot itself to
remain fairly open and, you open and the toes to be
used. And so more recently, we've lost a lot of our intrinsic foot strength, our foot mobility,
our ankle mobility. And what do we have to show for it? We have things like bunions,
things like plantar fasciitis, things like foot and ankle pain and restriction.
And I would argue that when you get home from a long day of work,
one of the best things you can do is just ditch shoes altogether. Shoes, slippers, socks,
sandals, anything. Just spend more time barefoot around your home. Try to spend time moving
barefoot, getting into unique and novel positions barefoot. It is good to develop and cultivate the
intrinsic strength of the muscles in your feet.
We have very much lost touch with it. And I'm very much of the opinion that increasing the
time you spend barefoot may well be the simplest way you can enhance mobility, coordination,
and proprioception. So many of the cells we use to determine where we are in space,
these cells known as proprioceptors, are located at the
bottom of your foot. And being in highly cushioned, insulated shoes and socks all the time is like
wearing a blindfold all the time and expecting to see well. You are quite literally cutting off
those proprioceptors' full ability to articulate and engage with the world around you, and spending
more time barefoot can make a huge difference in feeling more coordinated, more in touch with movement. What's going on,
guys? Coach Danny here, taking a break from the episode to tell you about my coaching company,
Core Coaching Method, and more specifically, our one-on-one, fully tailored online coaching
program. My online coaching program has kind of been the flagship for
core coaching method for a while. Of course, we do have PDF programming and we have app-based
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or a member of my coaching team, someone who is certified, somebody who has multiple years
of experience working with clients in person online, somebody who is licensed to provide a
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somebody who is actually good at communicating with clients because they've done it for years,
whether that be via phone call, email, text, right? This one-on-one coaching program is really designed to give you all the support you need with custom training designed for you, whether
you're training from home, the gym, around your limitations and your goals. Nothing cookie cutter here, as well as easy to follow macronutrition programs that are
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And if we don't put you on a waiting list, but we'll be sure to give you the best shot at the
best coaching in the industry. So head over to corecoachingmethod.com and apply for one-on-one
coaching with me and my team today. Additionally, I like low-level plyometric work, things like hops, pogos,
jump ropes, small things like this to redevelop and reconnect with that tissue property of
twitchiness and semi-explosiveness. I think sprinting, again, going back to the aerobic peak
that we spoke about earlier, but also twitchiness and explosiveness. You benefit from that. I don't
recommend going to the track and sprinting. I just recommend moving quickly on other devices,
the assault bike or echo bike being my favorite. And then footwork drills, balance drills,
fun drills, games, disorganized play. These are all great tools for just redeveloping coordination.
These are all great tools for just redeveloping coordination.
The sixth tip I have for you is to play with hot and cold exposure and see if you are one of the people for whom a cold plunge, a sauna, a steam room, a hot cold shower, a simply
cold shower.
If you are one of the people who can benefit from these different forms of temperature
modulation. There are so many companies,
so many influencers, so many, you know, science educators that are kind of flooding the zone,
so to speak, with information about these tools. And I think we know quite a bit about sauna and
cold exposure, cold water immersion now, but we're still very much learning and it can be
super confusing. So I would recommend trying different things. Uh, you know, this includes hot tub sauna,
steam room on the warm side. This includes cold plunge, cold water immersion, cold shower,
cryotherapy on the cold side. I think the simplest way to do it is cold water immersion and sauna,
but not everybody has access to these tools. So even things like cold showers can be a way to
dip your foot, no pun intended, into this space. I benefit tremendously from sauna and modestly
from cold water immersion, and I do find benefits to doing them. That being said, I'm fully aware
of the practicality of these being a lot lower than all of the things that we've talked about
so far, but I would still
recommend playing with them. The seventh tip and tool I have that will also be of tremendous
financial benefit to most of you, given the cost of eating out, whether that be at restaurants,
convenience food stores, convenience food restaurants, is to cook more at home, cook in bulk, cook in a way that
produces leftovers, and cook simple, single to two-ingredient recipes. This does not include
things like seasoning and spices. But for example, last night, I cut four sprigs of rosemary on my
way home walking the dogs, and I cooked two pounds of beef with salt, pepper, and rosemary,
and two pounds of potatoes with potatoes, olive oil, and rosemary. Very simple,
but that made enough food for three meals. My wife and I were able to have potatoes and steak
for dinner. We did pair that with some steamed vegetables. There was enough steak and potatoes left over to have potato steak
and egg breakfast burritos, as well as lunch of just plain potatoes and steak with some of those
leftover vegetables. And I asked her, I said, Hey, you know, you went to the store and you bought
this beef. She bought it at a Mexican grocery store. So they call the beef arrachera, but it's really just skirt steak. And I said, yeah, what did you pay for the steak? Do you remember? And she said, well, I spent like 25 bucks on the whole bill, which included the potatoes, two pounds of steak, and a ton of live in California, I'm spending $25 just to get like a double meat Chipotle bowl with guac. It's like 21 bucks before taxes. So out the door, it's like 23 bucks. And I said, that makes one meal with less protein. And this makes three meals, each of which have more meat than you get in a double meat Chipotle. And I get a ton of salsa for the week.
meat than you get in a double meat Chipotle. And I get a ton of salsa for the week. So I couldn't help but think like, wow, to replicate this, I'd have to spend like $75 at Chipotle. And this isn't
a knock on Chipotle or the convenience of Chipotle, but that meal that we prepared was substantially
better, tastier, and it obviously spread out across multiple meals. So my tip for you guys
is cook more at home, cook more simply and learn how
to cook the basics, learn how to cook vegetables a few different ways, whether it's steaming,
roasting, sauteing, learn how to cook meat on a grill, in a saute pan, frying pan, in the oven,
in the air fryer, learn how to cook potatoes, learn how to cook rice simply in a rice cooker on a stovetop. If you can lock in
how it is or lock in an easy way to prepare some of these simple foods that you can prepare in bulk
and set some aside for yourself to have later, it will make health, fitness, increasing nutrient
density substantially easier. The eighth tip I have for you is borrowed from the Japanese culture, and it is the idea of
eating the rainbow. So eating the rainbow is, you know, you could like misconstrue this as just like
eating Skittles, which is certainly not something that I would recommend. But there is tremendous value in eating
plant matter specifically that is diverse in color, diverse in color array. So to enhance your
health markedly, like one of the simplest food tips you could ever give is to eat the rainbow. This means eat fruits,
vegetables, whole grains that are in a variety or a diverse array of colors.
Reds, greens, oranges, blues, all these different hues that you see in plant foods,
right? They're not just variations in color. There are oftentimes indicators of tremendous variation in nutrient density.
The flavonoids and polyphenols, the plant compounds that make strawberries and tomatoes
red aren't present in the foods like blueberries, which have unique flavonoids like anthocyanin
that are uniquely beneficial.
So these colors that we see that make these plant compounds
appear differently, these fruits, these leaves, whatever it may be, these are indicators of
different nutrition. And if you eat the rainbow, you will be exposing yourself to a ton of different
nutrition. So instead of just eating the fruits and vegetables that you like, which is very good
still, if you have a few that you like, which is very good still, if
you have a few that you love and you include those all the time, that's great.
But much like a stock portfolio where you might want to diversify your exposure to different
companies, I would recommend diversifying your exposure to different fruits and vegetables
and aiming to eat the rainbow using color as an indicator of variety so you can get
a ton of exposure to unique compounds
in different compounds that are found in different colored fruits and vegetables.
I think it can be a simple way also to just like minimize thought at the grocery store. Like,
okay, I have something orange, something green, something blue, something red,
really good, easy and efficient. The ninth thing I would do, this is huge for productivity,
is practice leaving your phone out of the room. I'm recording a podcast right now,
and I just pulled my phone out of the drawer. I put my phone in the drawer because even when
I'm recording, if my phone is sitting on the desk, I'm inclined to check that phone,
If my phone is like sitting on the desk, I'm inclined to check that phone, to find small things, to peek at things, to open email, and simply putting it in a drawer and closing
it, making sure it's out of my line of sight makes a huge difference.
But setting screen time limits and practicing just leaving your phone on the counter or
in another room where you would have to physically go up and get it is a great way to spend less
time on the phone. The 10th tip I have is to eliminate weed and booze for small stretches.
I think booze is substantially more damaging than cannabis, but I'm now over three weeks,
no cannabis. And I can say, I haven't noticed a ton of changes. I certainly miss interacting with
the compound that is THC and CBD. I think it has substantially more life enhancing properties than
alcohol. But one thing I'll say for sure, living in California, is there's dispensaries opening up
everywhere. And I think that too many people are using too much cannabis. And I think that
as is like, if everybody, if like, let me put it to you this way, if for years,
alcohol was as difficult to get as cannabis was. And then all of a sudden, all these alcohol
dispensaries started opening up and everybody started trying alcohol and engaging in it in a
semi-compulsive borderline addictive capacity the way many people can with cannabis like the it would
be so obvious how bad alcohol is but because we've spent nearly you know a century post prohibition
having alcohol extremely integrated into society we've just come to accept it. But a lot of people are using a lot of cannabis all day long. And I think that if you are super
dependent on any compound, specifically a psychoactive compound, it can become compulsive.
And thankfully, you know, relative to other drugs, weed is pretty innocuous in so many ways. I would just recommend if you have been abusing caffeine, nicotine, like the Zin or yes, of course,
cigarettes, cannabis, alcohol, any other, you know, prescription pharmaceutical, like
a benzodiazepine or Adderall that maybe is or isn't prescribed for you, that you take some time
heading into the new year to adjust those habits and behaviors. The 11th tip I have that I think
will make a huge, huge difference for you is to just simply read more. I shared something from
Naval that I really loved the other day with my friend. It was 10 tips to be a better reader.
vol that I really loved the other day with my friend. It was 10 tips to be a better reader.
Number one is to read what you love until you love to read. Number two is to read the books they want to ban. Number three is reading a book isn't a race. The better the book,
the more slowly you should absorb it. Number four is I always spent money on books. I never
viewed that as an expense. It's an investment. Number five is good books are worth rereading. Great books
are worth rebuying. The sixth is the smarter you get, the slower you read. The seventh is if you
can't speed read it, it isn't worth reading, which I do see as being somewhat counterintuitive to the
sixth tip. The eighth tip is reading is the ultimate meta skill and can be traded for anything
else. Number nine is a
vacation is a very expensive way to schedule the time to read a book in peace. I like that one
quite a bit. And the 10th is reading is more efficient when at rest. Audio is more efficient
when in motion. So of course, these are all tools for increasing the amount of knowledge and
specific knowledge that you take in, but spending more time reading will enhance the amount of knowledge and specific knowledge that you take in, but spending more
time reading will enhance the quality of your life and it will help to kind of recalibrate and
rewire your brain away from these fast, addictive tools and things that we have like TikTok or
Instagram, et cetera. The 12th tip I have is similar to the reading tip. It is to
get a membership to your local library so you can get free audio books or to get an audible
membership or to subscribe to some great podcasts and fill more of that music time and junk time
that might be spent in the car listening to, you know, super aggressive, abrasive music,
sad music, whatever, with something educational. The 13th tip is to keep a paper calendar
and sync that paper calendar with your digital calendar so that you have two forms of kind of
written time blocking in your life. I think that makes a huge, huge difference.
time blocking in your life. I think that makes a huge, huge difference. And the 14th tip I have is a sleep tip. And it is to start your day with movement within an hour of waking light. If you
can, I know that this is very common, uh, in the Huberman protocol world to get up, get moving,
get light, but man, does it make a huge difference in my mood, my ability to fall asleep later in the
day and my energy when I wake up and hit something physical first thing in the mood, my ability to fall asleep later in the day and my energy when I wake up and
hit something physical first thing in the morning. Huge difference maker. All right, folks, that's
14 tips for better health training and productivity in the new year. I hope you enjoyed the episode.
If you did, be sure to share it. Tag me so I can say thank you. Leave me a five star rating and
review on Apple and Spotify and expect more podcasts like this in
the new year. It would mean a lot if you hit the follow or subscribe button and just kept up with
the podcast. I try to keep the episodes short, sweet, actionable in a world where there's a ton
of podcasts to choose from. I am immensely grateful that you choose mine and I will thank you until I
see you on the next one.