-: Okay, today we are talking
about Neurological Programs and Phases,
and how we would modify our assessment during those.
This is gonna be a very
we'll say performance based module,
because I mean obviously for emphasizing
a lot of we'll say physical qualities
like strength and speed were
those are gonna be good measuring sticks for us,
as well as, you know, the you should
be exhibiting the least amount
of metabolic stress during these.
So just letting you know up front
that when you're doing these phases,
the general principle
in terms of your assessment should be probably
shouldn't see a lot of the biomarkers getting disrupted
if we are paying attention
to the performance markers, because in this case
those performance markers are gonna be
very predictive of what to expect ahead.
So without further ado, let's go ahead and get rolling.
So why would we choose what this should say
neurological instead of local metabolic
sort of happens when I copy and paste
the slide but not the title.
So the rest of this is correct.
So why would you choose a neurological phase?
Well, we could do it as a de-load.
We could be focusing on strength or power
or we could be focusing on coordination.
So those are gonna be like, kind of the main reasons.
Now the ideal outcomes are gonna be very different.
If we are choosing this for a de-load goal
versus one of those performance
specific adaptations, obviously you know,
the goal of a de-load is,
we're essentially doing the neurological phase
mainly to take away the metabolic or systemic stresses
or whatever it may be from the previous program.
So the whole goal outcome during a de-load
is to see all of the things
that were starting to come
up in terms of bad biomarkers
or performance regressions is to see a reversal
and a recovery of all those things.
Versus when we're looking at, you know
the performance specific adaptations.
Now we're more concerned
that we're actually getting adaptation.
So the stimulus is not so much the focus
in the de-load as much as it is removal of stress.
Whereas when we're looking
at performance specific adaptations
steamless is gonna be the main thing
that we're looking for
cause we're trying to drive
specific neurological adaptations
not necessarily use a neurologically
designed program just because
it is a break from the metabolic purposes.
Now you could be trying to accomplish both
of these things simultaneously
but neurological goals, you know,
tend to be something
that you're gonna be working on
for subsequent weeks.
So usually if we're focusing on
a one or a two week de-load,
you're not it's unrealistic to expect
a lot of neurological adaptations
from that little exposure.
So you're not gonna get that much stronger
by training heavy or training,
you know, a neurologically based movement
for one week or even even two weeks.
I mean, you'll see improvement over that time
but really you're likely not even getting close
to what your current potential is
for optimizing your neurological efficiency
in those movements in such a short window.
So when we're talking about performance
specific adaptations, we're talking,
you know, minimum six weeks, probably,
you know, if we're really focused on that
maybe four weeks if we're doing this
as kind of like just a way of, you know,
building in some strength blocks,
within some like more sarcoplasmic hypertrophy type things.
But if we're looking at a dedicated
like strength-based program,
we're probably looking at more of a six week minimum.
So in general, you know, we've been
through this in the program design course
we're gonna use metabolic phases
for the shortest periods of times
in terms of their like small mezzos
or hypertrophy kind of in that middle window
and neurological for the longest consecutive
without some sort of switch up there.
Now I will say, because this is pertinent
to the assessment portion is of all of the phases.
You know, when we're looking at a,
you know, a neuro phase, it's one
of the ones where you can almost
just drop volume for your de-load, a little bit.
And then, you know and then come back
in a week later or whatnot.
So I'm not saying that's the most optimal way to do it.
Like here then one, we would say like,
well rather than just doing a low volume of nothing
why wouldn't we do like an AMPK
or something like that, but of all the phases,
this is probably the one where,
when you see some of these, you know
biomarkers or performance markers,
start to regress that you may have
the opportunity to just like, okay
let's just decrease the volume,
increase our recovery a little bit and then jump back in.
I'm not saying that's the best way to do it
but this is the only one where that probably
really affords you the opportunity
because your neurological phase
is not as dependent on the other adaptations.
Now, as you start to go longer and longer and longer
without any metabolic adaptations or whatnot
that's where you would start to see
more biomarkers showing up in the neuro phase.
And it would be happening
not so much because your training program
like that you're overstimulating,
or you're under recovering
as much as you are deconditioning
things that help with recovery.
So you'd be deconditioning your cardiovascular system
your local metabolic system
your systemic metabolite regulation,
and all of that stuff.
This is all getting deconditioned.
If we're training in a way
that isn't neither maintaining
or stimulating any of those adaptations.
So you may just, by the factor of time
get to a point where you start seeing some
of these negative biomarkers come up.
If you, if you're a pure strength athlete
and you just don't, you know
don't utilize your de-loads well to get other adaptations.
And you've just been going
without other adaptations for such a long time.
So I wanna put that context in there
of that as a possibility that may be,
you know, that probably happens
more often than people realize
especially in like the powerlifting world
and the strength-based world.
Is that how much it's the,
it's not their current training program.
It's not, the design is not the volume
or whatever there that's the bottleneck.
It's the fact that they haven't brought up
any other adaptations in such a long time
is actually the source of all
of their negative biomarkers
because they're under recovering,
but they're not under recovering
because they're not eating enough.
They're under recovering simply
because they're not actually stimulating
any of the other physiological processes
that we need for often performance and recovery.
So moving on, so if we get into here
a little bit more detail for doing a de-load recovery
of the previous burdened biomarkers is the main thing.
If the performance goal is coordination based, right?
Our ideal outcome is we're looking for improvement
in coordinating a movement pattern,
which is gonna result in neither,
better form, stability, strength, speed
or tolerance to fatigue.
And all of these are gonna occur under,
we'll say, lower intensity loading.
So you could be doing a coordination
based program where you're taking
somebody from doing a lot of isolation exercises
to a lot of compounds, to a lot of unilaterals
to things that just, you know, I mean,
they could, that could be quote unquote
dare I say more sports specific,
not really sports specific, but you know
in terms of the whole functional training thing,
that's you know, bullcrap.
But when we look at trying to challenge
the same joints and stuff like that,
that's where we would say,
okay, we can get some more sports
specific because, you know,
we don't necessarily have to mimic the sporting environment
but we could simultaneously load the same joints
with similar vectors in a strength based movement.
And that could be something that we work
on as a coordination goal or strength goal.
So basically if the goal is coordination
we're looking at improvements in that motor pattern
at that kind of lower level of intensity.
If we're looking at speed, okay.
The adaptation we're hoping to happen is
that we're getting increased intramuscular
and extra muscular coordination
between the agonist and antagonist tissues
which results in a speed improvement under low intensity.
So when I say intramuscular
that means we're coordinating the motor units
within that muscle getting more efficient.
So that's maybe, you know, we're getting it
those higher threshold motor units faster.
So basically our intent of speed is translating
into a recruitment of higher threshold fibers
earlier in the absence of excessive weight
are extra muscular that is the coordination
between the different muscles.
So say if I'm, you know,
obviously I wouldn't really do like speed elbow flection.
That's probably not something you're gonna train,
but if we just keep it simple,
that would be the coordination
of all of the elbow flexors to,
you know, be very efficient
with their relative antagonist
so that everything on the backside is relaxing.
And the things in the front side
are exhibiting their maximum intensity
at the appropriate time throughout that range of motion
basically making it extremely efficient,
speed comes from efficiency of movement,
not necessarily strength
because there's a threshold
for strength that you need
especially relative to whatever conditions
you need to exert or, you know, express that speed in.
But speed is more an efficiency thing
than it is a power thing.
Once you meet that kind of threshold
for strength right now, when we look at power
is that kind of thing, where it's just like, all right
now this is essentially strength dependent speed
would be one way of kind of looking at power.
So for focusing on strength, power
we're looking at increase in the size
of the simultaneous motor unit pool recruitment
resulting in the improved performance
under higher intensity.
So that basically means we're trying to improve
how many muscle fibers we can get contracting all at once
so that we can be essentially exhibiting a greater amount
of tension at the same time,
which allows us to move
a greater load for a one RM or very low repetition.
So the big thing that we're gonna be looking for
with you know, with these qualities
is what the environment that we are evaluating them in.
Are we evaluating them in a low intensity
or a high intensity environment.
And then if it's coordination
obviously those are gonna be movements
where there is going to be some sort
of neurological complexity to the movement.
So we're actually the movement pattern itself
is a big part of what we're evaluating
with that performance.
So if I'm focusing on coordination
I'm not sacrificing technique for speed or power.
If I'm focusing on pure speed or pure power
there may be those gray areas,
where it's like, you know
what level of compensation is actually functional
for the outcome that I'm going for?
So you're gonna see kind of,
you're gonna see the kind of goals
and the things that you're looking
at for that performance perspective kind of shift
in terms of a prior to that you wanna see.
So for instance, you know,
if you're doing speed work, where you stop a session
or how you evaluate a session, is based off of speed.
So it really helps if you're using something,
you know, like, you know,
a tendo or something that can actually measure that speed
or maybe you're just using your coaches eye
but like you will stop when you can no longer
perform the repetitions at the target speeds
that you're looking for.
Because now you're starting to just essentially
like if you're train slow, be slow
it's not a totally true thing.
But if you're thinking within a workout
the exercises that you would be
like trying to train for speed
you don't wanna train those purposely slow
or train them when you're so fatigued
that they start getting slow
cause essentially the movement
that you can do fast from a recruitment perspective
is different than when you do it slow.
So when we're looking
at that specificity of increasing speed
it doesn't necessarily help us to practice it
under conditions that result in slower motions.
Now coordination would be,
I'm gonna stop it when the movement
no longer looks exactly like I want it to
from a technique perspective now.
So basically where we're drawing a harder line
in the sand on technique
and strength and power like men,
like we're just like, get that thing moved.
Like we're not necessarily focused on the speed.
It's really about how much load
can we move a point A to B
you might still have a speed
or a technique line that you don't wanna cross
but likely it's further away
than it is for speed or coordination from like, perfect.
So what I wanted to do with this slide here
is kind of bring back in the last training thing
that we talked about which was more of the metabolic stuff.
So if we're looking at, you know,
endurance, you know, in metabolic stuff
versus strength, speed, power
they're on the opposite ends of the spectrum
in terms of like, you know,
our training styles and phases,
we have the highest reps at one
and the, you know, the lowest reps that are at other
but when you are at the extremes of the continuum
you're gonna get the most
we'll say performance dominant
assessment feedback because when you're at the extremes
the specificity of those adaptations is greater.
Therefore we can have more, we can look
at the expected performance outcome
and utilize that more we'll say,
as a higher rank in terms of the quality
of the information I'm getting back from an assessment.
So when we talked about local metabolic stuff
it was a lot of, you know, looking at like
are we actually improving in that type of performance?
And because it's very local
we're not expecting to see a bunch
of physiological breakdown occur
before we get performance issues, right?
They're gonna occur very close to each other,
same time, depending on the extremes
that may flip flop between which one shows up first
we're gonna see that same thing here.
Now, when we get into, you know
systemic training and hypertrophy training
where we kind of have like this more
volume-based stimulus this more kind
of like global stress on the body
that's where the biomarkers are gonna be dominant.
So this one here is the second
of our phases that we're talking about
where the performance markers are gonna
be probably the priority of what you look at.
So tracking those is gonna be
more valuable per se than tracking a lot of biomarkers.
You know, obviously go back
to the very first video and have one it choose.
What's gonna be best for that situation,
that client and for your ability to interpret it.
But this is where I would bias it
for this is more towards the performance.
So nets, because performance adaptations
are more sensitive to recovery
when we're very specific out here
and efficiency of the program at these extremes.
So becoming experienced and expecting
we'll say the magnitude.
So when we're looking at the performance metrics,
a lot of times people ask me like,
well how much stronger should I expect somebody to get?
Or how much, you know, how many more reps
should I expect this person
to go get from week to week?
That's one of those things
where you really have to end up wanting.
And that's where experience, especially experience
with that particular individual
is going to help you but experience in general
because you will kind of see like,
some patterns, you know
within populations or similar type individuals
of like, okay, for this person, you know
I'm gonna expect their strength to move, you know
this fast and for this person
I'm gonna expect their, you know
their conditioning or their, you know,
their performance and more metabolic
based stuff to move this fast.
But really the best thing for you to do
is to take what you know about that individual
and what their attributes are and get an idea
of what would be realistic expectations for them
and then constantly be updating
your thought process around
that based off of the results they're getting.
And I mean, we should always be trying
to push that envelope
whenever possible for getting the,
you know, the best and fastest results
that we can with whatever that client
is willing to give us.
And so this is where, you know,
over time you can start seeing like,
okay, what is the maximum amount
that I owe, you know the rate of progress
that I can expect, and then, you know,
kind of know where that line is.
And then occasionally you get close
to that line and kind of pay attention
to the biomarkers since, you know,
what's gonna happen, right?
Because you know maybe they're more stressed
or less stressed, maybe now it's an opportunity
where we can push or hey maybe
now our expectations have to come down
a little bit because, you know,
life's just hitting us with some stuff that,
you know, we can't quite overcome.
So our, when we look at the key performance
markers to watch, it's gonna be
just performance specific improvement.
So we just, we went over those three
I won't repeat them, you know
our speed coordination and then our strength and power.
So we're looking at, you know, specific improvements
in magnitude and then specific improvements over volume.
So, you know, when I say magnitude, that would be okay
I'm able to go up in load.
But I mean, you know
when I'm looking at volume,
it would be like, all right
I'm able to maintain a load over
more sets before goes down.
So depending on the direction
that you're trying to move them
whether they're focusing on more of like driving
up the intensity or a little bit more volume,
depending on which progression markers
or which ways you're trying
to progress the current programming you would be looking
for the performance to move in those specific directions.
And also depending on where they're coming from
like if they're coming from a higher volume program
or whatever it may be, you might expect them
to make improvements in one area fashion,
the other when it comes to magnitude
versus volume, right?
So if they've already been doing a ton of volume
their tolerance to volume may not improve much
but their magnitude may improve
a ton if they have really doing much
in terms of intensity based work,
but they might not, you know
but their volume tolerance
may like they might already,
be expressed a good qualities there.
So you're not gonna see
that big of a change in them.
So take in mind where they're coming from.
And then also what your goal
is in terms of progressing program.
Our key biomarkers to watch are gonna be soreness.
Now for this particular one,
I'm gonna divide soreness up into specific.
And non-specific so soreness means
I went to squat and my quads got sore,
or my glutes got sore, you know,
adaptors like the prime movers
nonspecific is I went to squat and you know
my TFL is sore, my QL or my low back,
or, you know, my hip, my knee is sore joints.
So anything that's not specific
to the actual primary muscles
that we're trying to overload.
So when it comes to soreness
and we're looking at this, if it's specific
that means like, okay,
if we're getting too much of that,
it might literally be just like,
all right, you know, maybe we're doing
too much volume or whatnot.
If we're getting nonspecific
it could also be too much volume,
but it also probably means that you're doing
too much work, like closer to the,
you know, closer to the failure based threshold.
So it might also be an intensity issue
where we're just, we're kind of
really kind of pushing over that line
between technique and compensation.
And so maybe we're doing too many grindy reps
or whatever it may be.
So I would first suspect an intensity issue
but it could also be a volume issue
or a combination of there, right?
But so when it's, you know,
it's just specific to that tissue,
then it's probably, okay it's just a volume issue,
you know, that we need to work on.
I mean, it could be a variety
of things like exercise, selection, stuff like that
if we're talking about getting away wrong
but for the most part, that means we're probably
just getting a little bit too much volume
or maybe it's you know,
maybe we're choosing some resistance profiles
and stuff that are a little too like
than biased for the volume that we're trying to use
in terms of expressing the strength qualities.
So you might need to cut down
on some squats and add in an exercise that isn't LinkedIn.
So you could essentially get the same
more amount of volume but just choose
better exercise selection,
but I'll let the boys kind of cover
all the specific examples
with that in the practical.
But I do wanna say that like
from a soreness perspective
specific soreness and non-specific soreness
should be looked at slightly differently.
And by the time we get to non-specific soreness
I would say, okay, at that point in time
you should definitely focus on something changing
cause if we're getting sore
in the tissues that we're not overloading
that means either we're very fatigued,
you know, using way too much volume
or we're using intensities that are, you know
pushing us into too much of a compensatory pattern
which is going to create a plateau
in our gains very, very fast.
And of course, this is all coming with, you know
additional stress and inflammation
on the body that is just going to eat into our recovery.
The other biomarkers are gonna be sleep in this case.
Falling asleep is gonna be the main one.
And, you know that'll make sense
when we're looking at the next biomarker
which is gonna be anxiety, anxiousness,
restlessness and then also mental focus
are gonna be things that would be some signs
that we are kind of overdoing it
with a neurological stress.
So when it comes to the anxiety, right?
You know, and this is what it is, right?
Like somebody please sedate me
Because what you will get is you will get
people where they are essentially we'll
call it like tired and wired.
And so if you're overshooting the stimulus here, especially
you know, especially from an intensity perspective
what you'll get is people will become more anxious
and therefore they can't, they have trouble falling asleep
I'll have racing mind, et cetera.
But the big thing is that it could be
for some people anxiety is a very conscious thing
for other people, it's just more of a,
like, I can't, my mind is restless.
I can't like shut down, even though I'm tired,
I can't fall asleep.
I closed my eyes and I'm just,
you know, I'm thinking about things
or whatever it may be.
So this is gonna be more so
when we're overshooting the intensities
of the programs is we're gonna get that anxiety.
Cause we're getting a lot of stimulus
to the nervous system.
And this is different than the CNS stuff with that.
You're kind of saying in the
research right now where it's like
they're saying like, you know,
like lower repetitions or more CNS stressing,
et cetera, that's a different type of stress
than what we're doing here, where
we're essentially getting an, a tremendous,
you know, peripheral with some CNS work
spinal loading and stuff is a big part here.
For example, here's a personal anecdote
is that, you know, if I squat,
this is gonna impact me more squatting
at higher intensities than doing something
that doesn't load the spine like leg presses.
So I could do high intensity of both of those
but simply not loading the spine might be the difference
between whether or not I'm able
to get good sleep that night
or the not depending on
whether I train too close to,
you know, too far on (mumbles).
So basically I don't like to train legs later
in the day for this very reason, but especially not
if I'm doing a big exercise that lows the spine
and that's cause I it'll affect my sleep.
And the last thing that you wanna do
after your like most stressful workout
of the week is to have that be the night
where then you you can't sleep.
Now, you can have short-term remedies
with this in terms of, well, okay,
train earlier in the day, that will help.
There's a lot of things that we can do nutritional
you know, from, you know, macros to also,
you know, taurine, magnesium DNA
and all of those types of things.
You guys have all those tools from course too
that you can put in here, right?
Especially if somebody is very sensitive to this
but ultimately just keep in mind
that that might be a sign
that the intensity volume match
up for your exercise selection may be there.
So if you're not able to manage it nutritionally,
supplementally, you know, training time, et cetera
then it might be time to change up
some exercise selection, or, you know, look at, you know
lowering those intensities, now on the flip side of that
if we overdo with volume, okay.
So what if I told you?
Potato right?
So I don't know how many of you guys have experienced this
but like when you've trained to the point
where essentially like, normally,
I'm a guy that likes to be entertained,
you know, like stimulating stuff,
like watching a show or scrolling on my phone
or I'm doing something I'm working,
unlike my brain to be occupied.
Potato is when you can just literally be here
and just wait for time to go by and you don't care.
Like you're just completely zoned out.
And that happens when you overtrain neurological stuff
by volume, you just basically
become worthless for anything.
Like if there was a home invasion, you would just like
you just watched them steal your stuff.
That's potato and that's what happens
when it's not so much of an intensity thing,
but it's more of a volume thing
that we're overdoing, right?
And if you're over training intensity and volume
you might go through periods of anxiety and potato.
Like you might think that like maybe, okay
I'm essentially bipolar right now.
Yeah, that type of thing.
So that's a sign the potato experience
would be more of a sign.
That volume is the thing that you need to adjust rather
than intensity, but keep in mind all
of the ways that we look at volume, right?
So trading closer to failure, that's more volume.
So intensity could still be a way that you
manipulate volume, but likely in this case
I would say reduce sets
is kind of where I would go,
reduce sets or number of exercises
or something of like let's get this set
and rep total down a bit.
If we're going potato.
Other things that we're gonna get
from overshooting, the stimulus
are gonna be early workout,
performance loss, meaning that, you know
essentially we'll come in
expecting to hit a PR on the first set.
And that's where our performance will be down.
You know, typically you guys
just kind of seeing a pattern
of like when it is over-training,
we tend to have performance that's low, right?
From the get go when it's more
of a nutrition-based we might perform good
in the early portion of the workout
and then kind of taper off later in the workout.
In the case of neurological stuff,
it's, we'll say the least nutritional dependent
in terms of as the workout goes on.
So you might be under recovering
a little bit from a nutritional perspective
and you're still able to maintain performance longer
throughout the workout in a neurological phase
comparatively to a metabolic phase or hypertrophy phase.
So on the training side, you'll definitely see that
but on the nutrition one
that one may be harder to see.
Poor heart rate markers.
So that could be increased morning, heart rate, low HRV
higher resting heart rate, poor heart rate recovery.
So some of these happen because we're
over-training some of them haven't
because we are de-training the cardiovascular system.
A lot of times you have those two things
converging on each other, right?
So you have the fact that you're no longer
stimulating any cardiovascular improvements.
And then you have the fact
that you're exhibiting a stress
and you're progressing that up.
And basically those things eventually
are gonna come in to a point where now
where that's becoming a limiter of your recovery.
So it really doesn't matter that.
Well, I shouldn't say that, it matters why, but sorry.
I think I'm gonna sneeze, I'm trying not to, okay.
It matters why because then, you know,
whether it's just like it's time
to go and do another stimulus or take a week
or two and focus on that and then come back
versus you know, bring down your training load.
So it definitely matters
if you can kind of guess why you're getting there.
So obviously if you've just started
the training phase, you shouldn't expect
to see that like hopefully you came in
somewhat decent, you know, aerobic and cardiovascular shape.
If not, that's probably where your focus should have been.
You shouldn't be in the stimulus
you should be in something else
but we shouldn't expect this to happen really early.
But if you've been, if you've been grinding away
for a while and you've been progressing
well within the workouts and then all of a sudden
this has kind of a slow creeping on you.
That's where I would say, okay,
likely this is a periodization solution
not a adjustment of the current workout solution.
If it just comes on suddenly early
that likely is a current workout
you know, current program,
adjustment solution.
Other things for here
kind of repeating some of the ones from the beginning.
Non-specific soreness is gonna be the one
that I think you really need to watch out for
because that likely means that it's,
I mean, essentially that means
like you're not getting the quality reps that you think.
And so if you're getting a lot of non-specific soreness
that means you might also be missing
the stimulus in the sense
that you're not getting the specific
motor adaptations that you want
because you're using more compensation
which the more compensation you use,
the faster you will plateau
and the less overall progress
that you will be able to make within that block.
But also you're just gonna beat yourself
up a lot more as well.
So you're pushing the boundaries
for injury and stuff.
So that non-specific soreness is one
that I've really want people to be aware of.
I think that's the one that you should always
track excessive local soreness
when it comes to neurological training,
a lot of that's gonna come down to exercise,
selection based stuff.
So maybe for the performance thing you need
you need to be loading a length of position
and coming out of initiation and doing pauses
or squats or something like that.
And the reality of that is it's just gonna come
with soreness, but you would expect,
that soreness to be right where you want it to be.
And again, the trouble falling asleep
body tired, mind is wired, being restless.
That's the anxiousness loss of appetite
drastic changes in digestion.
Like, so we're going from like,
okay normal bowel, to constipation
or fluctuating between constipation,
diarrhea, stuff like that could be a sign
that the nervous system is stressed.
Usually that will happen after
if you miss the signs of the anxiousness
and the sleep you'll eventually get there
on the digestive portion, right?
But if you catch the sleep portion
and the performance like you, basically,
if you get to the point where the digestion is an issue
in a neurological program
and the neurological training is the cause
of the digestion stuff
you likely missed a bunch of other stuff
and you probably need to improve your tracking
or your check-in, you know, policy there.
Okay, under recovering,
you have a limited ability to boost,
like neurological recovery with food,
because it's just not as like calories
and glycogen and stuff like that.
They are are important, but they're less important
than some of the other stimulus,
in terms of their impact on performance.
So obviously like you will pick her out
really fast in a metabolic workout
if you are underfed but you might
be able to grid out some reps, especially,
especially if you have been kind of slowly under recovering.
Like it's not like you're not in a big calorie deficit
wasn't a big shift, but it's like,
you're just kind of gradually depleting
is then it may be hard.
You just will kind of like run into a plateau
is what it'll seem like you won't see
like all of a sudden, a sudden drop-off
in your performance is huge.
It'll be more so like you'd run
into a plateau faster than expected.
And then the other side of it is like,
I mean, definitely having the right amount
of nutrition will boost performance
but there's definitely a cap.
You can't just like, you know, eat more to be stronger.
Like once you get to the point
where like you're adequately recovering
you're replenishing your glycogen and whatnot.
Now you're just gonna be getting fat
and strong at the same time.
So when performance drops there.
There's gonna be minimal biomarkers showing up
that you can address with just more food,
especially if you're calorie deficit
or whatever it is, isn't huge.
Now, when I mentioned the anxiety thing
the magnesium's important, Turing's important.
Like those specific nutrients may have a lot
of application in these phases, but in terms
of like, you know, carbohydrate manipulation
and, you know, adjusting the macros
and the calories and stuff like that,
you know, essentially what you need
to focus on is like maybe you're doing neuro phase
during a transformation.
So you're just gonna get slower progress
in terms of strength and stuff like that.
But it won't be that detrimental to recovery.
Versus if you're focusing on optimal performance,
and you're gonna be eating at maintenance
or a very slight surplus of calories,
and that's it like going to a much bigger surplus
isn't going to improve strength much
in a natural athlete and an assisted person
because the drugs are driving adaptations
that the training is not, there may be applications
to going into a greater surplus in those individuals.
And they will be able to utilize that
and they will get bigger and stronger
faster with that extra food.
But in any non assisted person,
they would have to be a pretty,
you know, pretty genetic freak to
be able to utilize an excessive surplus in that situation.
Cause you're just not creating, you know
a big hypertrophy stimulus
and you're not depleting that much glycogen
and stuff with this type of training, right?
So the food impact is gonna be smaller
on a natural athlete
than somebody that's taking
performance enhancement drugs
that are continuing to stimulate pathways
that the training is not.
This scenario like a of neurological training
because the food stuff has less of an impact.
There'll be a lot of things
that could have that could be
either or a combination of both.
So the poor sleep, it could be nutrition, right?
But it probably has to mean the nutrition is really far off.
Or it's a combination of both.
You're a little nutrition and you're
little over-training and we're getting there, right?
Same thing for like increased carbohydrate cravings.
It's probably gonna be a combination of both,
energy and mood swings could be both
heart rate monitors could be both
load feels heavier than normal.
Like when you go into warmup could be both.
Cause it could be low glycogen levels
or it could be you're over-training
or a combination both unmotivated to training could be both.
So these are all signs that something needs to change.
Unfortunately they just aren't very specific.
So that's why tracking the performance markers
is going to be really valuable
so that you have a better idea of whether
or not the performance markers
give you the indication of whether or not
it should be a food-based or training based
under stimulating as this is the simplest,
the simplest one, not improving performance
with no biomarkers or negative performance markers, right?
So basically the only sign that you're
under stimulating here, because this isn't a strong driver
for nutrient partitioning or fat loss
or whatever it may be, essentially.
It's basically what she's like.
All right, the only if we're just
not getting as strong or fast or whatever,
we're not making the improvements
that we would want, but there's literally no sign
that our body's over stressed
do more pick up the intensity, pick up the volume.
But that's the really, the only feedback
that you're gonna get, like in the odds
that you were using more of a neuro based program
for transformation like you could look at,
like, okay, I'm I getting stronger
but not losing body fat, then maybe I would need to
decrease the calories there, but that's gonna
be a rare scenario that you guys are working on.
So, but that's like the one other thing
I could possibly think of.