Hacking Your Health
Hacking Your Health Podcast with Ben Canning and Dave Kennedy - Two guys setting out to hack body, mind, business and beyond. We are here to provide a single source, bullshit free guide to understanding your body and how you can live better, for longer.
Hacking Your Health
Episode 157: OVERCLOCK, the science behind it!
What if you’ve been doing weight loss all wrong by only focusing on cutting calories and upping cardio? Discover how a slight caloric surplus can actually be the secret sauce for muscle growth and overall energy. As we swap stories about the delightful fall weather in Cleveland and Ireland, you’ll hear how we manage seasonal affective disorder and keep crushing our fitness goals without injuries. Plus, we’ll even share a laugh about how growing a beard can be an integral part of a winter bulk strategy.
Join us for a celebration of triumphs in the gym, where hitting a personal record of squatting 500 pounds is just the beginning. We dive into the techniques that make conquering heavy weights both safe and exhilarating, like static holds and pin loading. With plans to record future episodes in a friend's impressive gym, the sense of community and shared passion is infectious. Chris and Prabhu are also in the spotlight, embracing challenges like long bike rides and high rocks events, all while shifting towards performance-focused goals.
Ever wondered what goes into a truly effective pre-workout supplement? As we formulate our unique blend, Overclock, we uncover the science behind key ingredients like citrulline malate and L-tyrosine. Learn how these components can boost your workout performance, keep fatigue at bay, and enhance mental clarity without the dreaded caffeine crash. From community workouts to innovative supplement development, this episode offers a holistic approach to fitness that’s both compelling and actionable.
Check out Overclock and Protein Protocol here
Want to know more about coaching? Book a call with Ben here
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Yo, yo, what is up, dude, how are you?
Speaker 2:doing good, man doing good. It's uh another rainy and cold day here in cleveland, ohio, but I can't complain like the weather's actually been like amazing pretty much uh this whole. You know I guess what we call fall here, but normally supposed to be like super cold and muggy and everything else and uh snow, and we haven't had any of that, so the weather's been good.
Speaker 1:I still get my vitamin d then, so it's been great luckily that we had the podcast last week on seasonal affective disorder, so you know exactly what you need to do to manage when the when the weather does change that's right.
Speaker 2:That's right, it's uh, it's definitely um, in that that time we're starting to change, so it's definitely getting there. But uh, you know, I think we still have a few weeks of decent um weather coming out, which is great. So, to be fair, like, how's it, how's it?
Speaker 1:fine, that's what I was gonna say. Like this morning I left the house in shorts and t-shirt and like it was, maybe I'm gonna say, 14 degrees I don't know what that is, what that translates to, but like 50 something maybe, and it hasn't even really been uni, like it's been fine, no real, no real cause for concern. So the weather in ireland is also good. That's awesome that's awesome yeah, what is the weather? How are you?
Speaker 2:um, everything else is great, like training's been going really well, no injuries, um for anybody who was who was listening last week.
Speaker 1:You did get your additional calories this week, so you submitted a check in the daily. I left it another day, just to like let you sweat a little bit, and then you did get your additional calories yeah, yeah, yeah, I did so, so the additional calories have been great.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. I've been spending it on uh, pizza and big macs and whoppers, and not just kidding the only way to spend them that's right.
Speaker 2:That's right. No, it's been good though, like um definitely actually already noticed uh, uh, an increase in energy. So it's amazing what 200 calories a day can can do for you. Because you know, when we talk about caloric surplus and deficits, you know what I always appreciated with your approach, which has been proven by science and a bunch of other stuff as well that you know slight surpluses, slight deficits are definitely the way to go right. You know, if you do too much of a deficit, you lose too much muscle and your body starts to shut down. You don't have a lot of energy, you feel like crap. And then, slight surplus, your body has more calories than it knows what to do with, so it gears itself up and you have more energy, you're able to build muscle faster, you're able to maintain that muscle faster and you also obviously have a byproduct of fat. Um, you know, but you do gradual and you minimize that that fat increase as much as possible while maximizing the muscle strength.
Speaker 2:It's such a good way of really balancing, kind of your ebbs and flows, and I was actually explaining, uh, this whole process, uh to, uh to uh. We had some friends over, uh, over our place and uh we're talking about. I was talking about how I'm now in my kind of my winter bear bulk season, right, uh, where I'm gonna try to grow my beard out, which is not gonna work, by the way. I'm already gonna. I'm already. It's like I haven't shaved my beard in like four weeks and as soon as you shave your beard, your calories could cut.
Speaker 1:So like if that's, if that's not motivation enough to keep it that's good, that's a good, uh good push to be.
Speaker 2:But I, once I get to that itchy phase, it like really starts to drive me nuts. So I haven't gotten there yet, but I know it's coming. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to power through to see how far I can keep this beard uh going. So we'll give uh updates, uh on everything you know, as we're going along with the beard status on each podcast to see where it's at and then eventually, you see, it probably shaved off. But I'm going to try. I'm going to try, like I said, I'm going to try as hard as I can to let this, this baby, grow.
Speaker 2:Um, but I was talking to some friends and they're like well, why do you, why do you do that? You know, why do you go in a surplus or why do you eat more calories and things like that? And just explaining it to folks people really have no idea of, like, how simple it really is. It just comes down to hey, if your goal is to build as much muscle as possible, you want to be eating the calories for that. And you know, I think again, you know talking about where the whole exercise industry is at. You know everybody's like oh, you just have to cut calories, you just have to eat less, you have to do more cardio and, yes, you will have some results with weight loss. But it's not sustainable long-term, at least not for most folks. I mean the ones that can just flip a switch and all of a sudden do cardio the rest of their lives and eat less food and they're super skinny and they're happy with that. That's great, fantastic, that's all you can do. That that's wonderful. But that doesn't work for 95% or 98% of the population.
Speaker 2:And so the balance of ebbs and flows, of allowing yourself to be a little uncomfortable and I was actually talking to a good buddy of mine, jason Jason Vest, who's our CTO over at Binary Defense. I was talking about it last night and he's like man. He's like I just started eating more Because he did exactly what everybody that gets into this whole thing does they start eating less. But he did it very methodically Ate just a little bit less, like I told him to, and he put on a lot of muscle mass. But he's like man, I want to get bigger now and I'm like, well, you're going to have to eat. And he's like I'm so uncomfortable right now because I cut out pizza, I cut out everything else he's like and I feel great I'm getting bigger. He's like this is amazing, he's like, but I got to trust that I can do that again when I want to lose the weight, right, and I think that's the whole trust factor that I have, where you know, hey, as soon as I need to cut down and cut down, as soon as I want to get bigger and get bigger. But I will say that my intensity and my workouts, just with 200 more calories, have been much more intense than my maintenance phase, so than my maintenance phase. So it's been good.
Speaker 2:The training has been going great. I actually hit a PR on my squat, uh, uh, last weekend, as you saw, 500, uh on my squat. So that was a brand new PR. I need to get a little bit more uh depth on that next time, but it was nice to feel the weight, um, and to really get down and know that I can get back up again. Um, it was. It was awesome. So things are actually going good. I did five45 on a deadlift felt really good. Um, no aches and pains my shoulders on a bench. I'm doing, you know, heavy benching now, like my bench is up to like 315 right now and uh, I don't feel any pain. What's? And that's inclined bench? I don't feel any pain in my shoulder whatsoever, so like everything's firing on full cylinders and knock on wood um injury, injury free. And uh, it's been.
Speaker 1:The training's been going great, yeah I think that I mean in a similar first of all, 500 pounds on a squat. It's absolutely ridiculous and I think just what exactly you said, exactly what I was gonna say, like just that initial feeling, the weight like your body's not gonna just be like all right, okay, 500 additional pounds here, no problem. It's like what the fuck is going on.
Speaker 2:So like a couple of times, my whole body's shaking. It's like what is going on? Are you gonna die? Are you gonna die? You're gonna die.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm okay but I think the thing about that is it's like feeling like the first time. The next time it'll probably still be a little bit shaky, then after that it'll get a little bit better and then you'll be able to work on the depths. But that initial sort of like whenever you are in that pr stage and you're just like this is the first time I've ever like had that way in that movement, it's just, it's just feeling out, as you said, and in a similar way, I've sort of made the decision that I'm going to push a little bit further into surplus myself and training is just so much better. Like, yes, okay, do I feel better whenever I'm leaner? Absolutely. Do I feel better when I'm eating less food in terms of like lighter day-to-day? Yes, absolutely. But I, whenever I'm in a surplus, I just absolutely love training infinitely more. It's so much more fun.
Speaker 1:I like feeling strong, I like how I feel day to day. Um, like I feel my clothes. I'm finally back up over 225 pounds. So we're in a good spot. Overall. Things are good.
Speaker 2:Training is good I was talking to dude by. By the way, your gym looks amazing. The pictures you're sending, the videos you're sending.
Speaker 1:Come hang out. I have to. I'm going to make it out there.
Speaker 2:I'm going to. I'm going to do it. It's done. I just got to get the dates locked in.
Speaker 1:We have a perfect podcast studio here. We can record in person and everything. That'd be amazing, I'm in, trust me.
Speaker 2:I got to look to your gym. It looks so good. I was talking to Steve Vann over one of the folks that works over at Binder. They all came in for a meeting this week. I was telling him about my lifting and he suggested something to me too, which I'd be curious to see your opinions on, which is more of like a static hold where you take the weights and and you know it's a power lifting technique, but essentially you, you let's just say it's 500 you know you load 500 or 525, whatever ends up being, and you just hold it for you know 20 to 40 seconds just to feel the weight in a position and then basically unload, and then you know kind of rinse and repeat and I guess that a lot kind of acclimates your body to feeling the weight ahead of time so you're more comfortable with it as you go along.
Speaker 1:so that might be something I might want to incorporate, but I wanted to get your opinion on it yeah, but it comes down to like, essentially what you're doing is you're creating new stimulus and that's how you build and grow muscle, so like that new stimulus of that weight, anything that you can do to aid whenever you actually go into the lift, like another thing that we can look at is almost like, uh, like pin pin loading, so like put the weight at the bottom of it almost whenever you're at the bottom of the squat. Now I'm not expecting just to be able to stand straight up, but see if you get into the bottom of the squat and you have the bar racked up with the safety racks in the bar sitting with the weight on it and you just get that initial feeling of coming from here slightly up, like that will help you on that that way back up again. So there's plenty of things that you can do just to get the the feel for it whenever you're entering those new prs, new ranges yeah, yeah, that sounds good.
Speaker 2:Give it a shot and see what works. I've tried new ways of techniques and I don't mind holding weight for a little bit and 40 seconds and seeing how it feels.
Speaker 1:Somebody comes in and you're just standing there with 500 pounds hey guys 20 seconds Hold Before we get into it.
Speaker 1:I want to get in. I had two calls today, one with Chris and one with Prabhu Chris has gone into his second year and Prabhu going to do his third year and just an interesting sort of like I guess, part of the journey that's never really spoken about. Um, essentially both of them are extremely happy with the progress that they've made so far and sort of the the general conversation between the two of them two separate calls, but similar conversation today was like okay, right, the goal was to get fit and feel better and now it's a case of like that's actually really test to see what we can do. Um, so sort of mapping out what the next year looks like. Um, chris wants to, he's going to, he's doing a bike ride, this in 17 days and then he wants to basically do three times the distance next year. So it's like what can we do to help him out to do that next year?
Speaker 1:Um, and then, probably in a similar vein, he was like I want to want to do a high rocks event. I was like no, are you sure that you want to do a high rocks event? He's like, yes, I want to see how the fitness actually translates. So it's cool to sort of see they've nailed the basics, they're happy with the progress, they're happy with the body composition, they feel fitter. But it's like what's the point? Like how can we actually test this out? To sort of come away from the I know that we talk about it quite a lot and sort of being a deficit and being a surplus, but my actually focus on on performance and sort of feeling better and like actually testing the limits of what the body's actually capable of. So I'm excited to sort of start programming for for those guys in the next couple of weeks and what the next essentially 12 months is going to look like for them that's awesome.
Speaker 2:It's awesome. So today I broke real quick, though I had I had Jeff from Hacking your Health over my house this weekend.
Speaker 1:Is that the first ever signed overclock?
Speaker 2:tub? I think so. So I signed an overclock and a whey protein for him and I got to meet his family. He's got a beautiful family and his kids. His kids are lifters, which is great, and his one son I think he's like 19. Really, really awesome. Like you know seasoned lifter, you can tell I was like man. Your arms might be bigger than me.
Speaker 1:I need to step it up a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but I introduced them to to blood flow restrictions with the, the power cuffs from Diamond Dallas Page and they loved it. You know they're dying with those. They're like this is the hardest thing I've ever done. So it was really cool to put them through a workout and show Jeff a couple things and a good time to get a lift in, and it's just. You know I always forget how fun it is to work with, work out with other people. I'm always just there by myself, or you know, my son will come sometimes, but you know it was nice to be able to work out with some. It was neat, so fun times.
Speaker 1:It's cool to see that happen within the community as well, and Thomas and Jen hosted Randy and Tyler and a couple of the other folks Jill over the weekend and had sort of a micro event that I was involved in. I'll not talk about it, but it's cool to sort of see those happen organically and that's essentially what the community and the movement of the whole is about. So it's cool, right, I want to get into the topic because I know that you and I could talk about this all day and this actually might end up being two parts if we're trying to stick to the time that we want. Today we are going to talk about if anybody's watching our pre-workout overclocked Because we've talked about it here and there, we've mentioned words and not really explained them. I have again put notes together as to what's in it. How many of the names am I going to fuck up trying to say why they're in it, why they're dosed the way they are and how we have come up with this formula on the?
Speaker 2:whole Sound good. Yeah, sounds like a good plan to me, one of my favorite topics.
Speaker 1:I know I know, we did this one specifically for you, right? So we can safely say that you were the chief formulation officer for this. You're the cfo of the company. What goes through the process of putting this together? Now, many, many, many, many, many, many pre-workouts have been tested, many different brands, types of pre-workout like. I feel like we have exhausted the pre-workouts um as much as we possibly can, trying to get them from all over the place to test them out, I would say from the, the ones that I've tried and the things that I've seen online. I don't necessarily think there is a pre-worker like ours. I don't think there's a formula like ours. I don't think there's a combination. Some of the things I don't think have been in pre-work rates before, as far as I know. So talk us through the process of how we've ended up here and then we'll get through what's in it and why it's in it and what the point of it is yeah, you know this is um years of listening to the human labs podcast.
Speaker 2:uh, dr lane norton, uh dr ronda patrick, um dr attia, like some of the like you know, leading folks that have amazing podcasts and research papers and kind of bring in the data studies into you know how you can help, and there's been a lot of um researchers that they've had that have come on that focus on, you know, performance athletes and you know, like uh, just various different subject matter experts on sleep and everything else, and so what we wanted to really do with with this pre-workout was take the science that's behind you know what we know works in our bodies and the ones that don't. There's a lot of stuff that you know what we know works in our bodies and the ones that don't. There's a lot of stuff that you know that that's out there that you know is either experimental maybe it works in, like you know my studies but it, you know, hasn't been tested in humans and a lot of times those can work, but a lot of times they don't or the research is so low from a control study perspective that you know the results really can be loose interpretation. So what we really want to do is break down the barriers of what do we know works and what can we do that enhances. You know what you're doing in the gym from, not just from a performance perspective. You know strength and energy, because you know most people take pre-workouts for the energy component of that right To get a little nice little boost that when they go into the gym they can work out a little bit harder, to get a little bit extra on the gains. And that's what you know. A lot of stuff is right, it's gaining just a little bit extra in certain areas.
Speaker 2:But what we wanted to do was say, hey, you know, are there other things that we can do with this pre-workout?
Speaker 2:That is, you know, above and beyond, just the energy components or the pump components of things, right.
Speaker 2:And so when we look at kind of the breakdown, we tackle a lot of different areas, not just from a workout perspective, but also what can also impact your workout itself. A lot of that comes down to like sleep, for example. Sleep is one of the most important aspects of recovering and if you're not getting good and adequate sleep, well, when you go to the gym you're going to feel like crap. You're not going to be able to put out as much, your body's not going to be as recovered, your muscles aren't going to be fully recovered. So there's a lot of things that go into understanding how our bodies work and really trying to get something that has a holistic approach to the pre-workout itself, and so, when we looked at bringing up this formula, we broke it up into a few different areas that I think were unique, and obviously, as you mentioned, ben, we tried so many different workouts. I tried some very simple ingredient ones, ones that were basically just like beta, alanine and citrulline, malate and caffeine right.
Speaker 1:There was a time that I Sorry to interrupt, but there was a time I remember, whenever I was back and forth with NI Supplements, whenever I used to work in the gym floor and Adam a guy that worked there that I used to work with many years before that he was like why don't you just start experiment creating your own? And this was like maybe six, seven years ago. So not all of the ingredients, but the majority of the ingredients that we have in here you can buy individually. So you can buy a Bdell and you can buy a Citrulline and Malate and then experiment with, like dosing everything together and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So I did have done that before in the past to sort of see what the what the best formula for me at that time was yeah, and, and we, we experiment with those different types of like, um, like chemicals that you're putting in your body vitamins, nutrients, minerals, whatever it ends up being, you know. Uh, again, the data studies are really important to go to to say, is this actually useful in a pre-workout or is it just kind of a filler and there isn't a lot of data studies around it, right? And so when we built it out, we really focused on number one, energy optimization. Okay, because obviously we want our pre-workout to give you energy and as part of that, we looked at kind of a different set of energy stacks that not only perform while you're at the gym but also allow you to. You know, we recognize a lot of people work out at night as or, I'm sorry, in the mornings or throughout the day, and you get those those horrible caffeine crashes where you know you either got to pop some more caffeine or you know you have this crash where you just feel super tired and sluggish halfway through the day and you know what's what's actually happening.
Speaker 2:There is caffeine. The way that it works is it binds to what's called our andesine receptors, which is kind of related to our well, it is related to our circadian rhythm and our clock and it basically hides what time of day it is to our brain. So our brain, you know, it doesn't. Actually it does have a stimulant effect around energy, but what it's really doing is making us think that it's earlier in the morning and we have a lot more energy, is making us think that it's earlier in the morning and we have a lot more energy. And so when those andesine receptors the caffeine is not bound to those andesine receptors anymore, andesine floods then to those receptors and you get that crash of like oh my gosh, all of them hitting at once and all of a sudden you're super tired, you drop your energy and everything else.
Speaker 2:So when we started looking at the energy component of that, we focused on a few different things that also provide energy, but also we really focused on the caffeine component, which is caffeine anhydrous, which is off of a specific leaf extract, and that's an immediate hit of caffeine, right, you get that immediate, usually 30 minutes before that's when we recommend taking the pre-workout, about 30 minutes before your workout and you get that immediate energy. You know, you know usually 30 minutes before I mean that's when we recommend taking the pre-workout about 30 minutes before your workout and you get that immediate energy hit from that caffeine. But we also use what's called XMXR, which is both what's called an extended and delayed release caffeine, and these are patented things that we license out from you know, a third party research company that has done all the research or some great data studies behind it, and what it does is it's a delayed binding to those receptors. So what ends up happening is, as the initial caffeine hit wears off those extended and delayed bind to those andesine receptors and still gives you that long-term feeling of energy throughout the day without that crash. So what ends up happening is, let's just say you take a pre-workout at 7 o'clock in the morning, usually by noon or one or two o'clock in the afternoon, you're crashing. This alleviates that. So it's a gradual release of the andesine receptor so that you don't get the crash. And then you know, once you start getting towards you know, closer to night now you start to be more calm, you start to be more relaxed, those antacid reservers start to bind, you get more tired and you're able to sleep. Those pieces there, I think, were instrumental in what we do.
Speaker 2:We also use a few other things as well. We use Santanu Energy. Santanu is basically derived from what's called Cassia Angophostelia plant. Basically, it's been proven in data studies and there's a lot of again another great research on this uh really helps enhance mental and physical stamina, mental clarity, physical stamina, um, by both hitting on cognitive and physical components of your body. So basically it's energized and focused, you know, for your, your training session.
Speaker 2:Again, that's another um proprietary uh component that we it's. It's all's all transparent as far as ingredients, but it's a proprietary thing that again we license out from Santa Nu to be able to leverage the research that's gone behind that and what it actually goes and does. And then the last component is L-tyrosine and with tyrosine it's an amino acid that really helps with focus and concentration. So think of it as more of a nootropic, but it gives you a lot of that brain food and brain power to really help with cognitive function. It's also been shown to reduce stress and also help with intense physical activity, based on the data studies. So those four things alone create our energy stack that allows us to like really enhance your energy, not just for the workout itself but throughout the day as well yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think the main point on that is about caffeine is caffeine doesn't actually give you the energy. It basically blocks the thing that stops you having energy. So that's the main point within that, I think. For for me, I guess, before we get into this even any further, for anybody who wants to look at the research or the papers or anything else, we have listed all of the resources as much as we could find on the site underneath the supplement. So it is all our, like they've said, full transparency on everything that we've put in along with papers and why we have put it in.
Speaker 1:But I think, with this specifically, like if I think back to when I first started training, my pre-workout was always a double espresso because it was the caffeine and that was all the hit that I really felt like I needed and what we've tried to do, as you said at the start, was look at the things that can give us more of an edge. So, like you're talking about focus and mental clarity, like all of those things come in to play a part in terms of how your your session on the whole starts and that's just looking at, like you said, these, these four components of it. So, in terms of the energy stack and kneeling. That like, I think, number one. We don't get that crash, because I know a lot of people talk about that crash throughout the day. Um, whenever it comes to pre-workout and I remember specifically when I first started taking pre-workout I definitely felt that crash. I was like, oh, I'm not drinking coffee but I'll drink this.
Speaker 1:Pre-workout had a really great session and then half an hour after I had my post-workout, I was asleep on the sofa having that because I had a complete crash. So Neil and I actually had a pretty good conversation with Helmy about he was here picking up another tub of Shell pop. I feel like he's maybe borderline addicted to it. Can't promote it because he's sponsored by another supplement company, but he's definitely enjoying it. But that's one thing he said. He said no crash whatsoever and like lasting energy beyond just the gym gym, like the focus that he has in sort of his work day to day after that is not something that he's got from a pre-workout specifically before yeah, yeah, and I definitely feel it like, um, you know the pre-workouts I've taken before in the past.
Speaker 2:Again, same thing crashes. You know, not the same level of energy, it's not the same level of mental clarity, um, and so those, those are the big components that make up the energy stack. And then we get into the actual strength and performance components, right? So as part of this, we recognize, hey, you might be a runner, you might be a lifter, there's different things, it might be more than the HIIT training. So how do we hit those areas so that your muscular endurance and your muscular strength is also combined with this as well, is also combined with this as well?
Speaker 2:And that's where we really focused on kind of the strength stack of it with beta-alanine and beta-anine anhydrous, which, and then as well as the citrulline malate. So if you look at, like citrulline malate, we went the fermented route. So if you look at, there's L-citrulline malate or there's L-citrulline and then there's L-citrulline and then there's l-citrulline malate, which means fermented, and in the data studies that fermentation process has been shown to be much more effective on absorption. Uh, thus you know, giving you more of a bang for your buck on the type of ingredients you put in there. Otherwise you have to just pack so much citrulline malate into there, um, that it, you know, the whole pre-workout becomes basically citrulline malate. But we dosed it really well. Um, you know, with one scoop it's 2,500 milligrams, two scoops is 5,000, which is dosed based on the studies that we've seen and because of the absorption piece with it. What it really does is it helps promote nitric oxide production, blood flow, circulation to the muscles, so kind of your pump.
Speaker 2:But what's really important is the delivery system for oxygen and nutrient delivery during sustained workouts. It's been shown that with with essentially malate um, you can outperform uh your workouts with with essentially, essentially malate then, versus without right, so you can lift longer, run longer, you know, perform some sort of physical activity for longer. So it's even great for like things like airsoft, like my whole airsoft uh uh group that I that I run with is all hooked on on it as a pre-workout. So you see, everybody it's it's funny because you see these bins everywhere of hacking your health and they're all scooping it up before they go and it helps them perform better at airsoft right, because you know, obviously you're running around, you're shooting, you're in tight, tense situations, have to move fast. To be clarity, you're focused, yeah, focused, you have to be absolutely focused. So so the the citrulline malate is a component of that.
Speaker 2:And then you look at the beta alanine, and this is one where people either love or hate it.
Speaker 2:I know you're not a fan of it, but we dose it in a way that didn't give you the massive itches and everything else. So a lot of people are like, oh, I love the burning on my face when it's burning off. Not a lot of folks like that, but it is important to note that there is some good data behind beta alanine. So it basically helps like buffer the acid once it's going to the muscles. So you know, like when you talk about like lactic acid and acid buildup in your muscles as you start to get more and more fatigued, this kind of helps prevent that process and reduces the fatigue, basically allowing you to train harder for longer. So, based on the studies, you know you you can train again longer and harder, have better athletic performance, muscle endurance and overall exercise capacity, strictly through beta alanine, which you know I'm a huge fan of with that, um, yeah, and as you said, like I'm I'm not, and I've never been, a fan of beta alanine.
Speaker 1:Like I remember taking some very high doses in whatever, whatever pre-workouts before, but the, that feeling of the itchiness almost distracted me from from training. But even with two scoops like I think it was 5 000 milligrams or for the 3 000 milligrams for two scoops I don't get any of that tingly feeling whatsoever. Um so, there's no, there's no issue that, because I know that that puts a lot of people off and it would put me off in other pre-workouts. But like I mean, I use this day and day at this stage. Um so there's no, there's no issues with that whatsoever yep, and then the last one.
Speaker 2:The last one's uh, uh, uh, baiting anhydrous. So, um, betta, betta sorry, betta name, I have really trouble pronouncing this one um, but uh, it's. Basically. They go in that order whenever you're one, but it's basically.
Speaker 1:Does it make sense that they go in that order?
Speaker 2:It does, but its abbreviation is TMG, so that's the easiest way of remembering is TMG, but based on the data studies, and this is like amino acids that are found in beets, spinach, wheat, whatever else you can find.
Speaker 2:But what they've shown in the studies is that basically by taking a certain amount of it and we again dose it properly, so we do um 1250 milligrams with one scoop and then you know obviously uh 2500 for two scoops and that has been shown in the data studies to really help with a lot of different areas around muscle strength and size. So they found that study studies that that athletes that took uh tmg daily had an increased arm size and improved bench press work capacity. Improved muscle recovery so helped muscles recover faster from exercise and due stress. Improved muscular endurance so studies show that it may improve performance in activities that emphasize muscular endurance and also helps with reduction in body fat. Emphasize muscular endurance and also helps with reduction in body fat. So some big pieces there around the effects of that in body composition and your ability to really outperform in those. So that stack there alone with citrulline malate, with TMG and beta alanine, really give you that strength and performance throughout the workout itself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think one thing that we haven't touched on yet is the sodium. I think it's gone unnoticed in this because of everything else that is within it and and as probably hopefully at this point everybody knows, I have for the past almost 10 years had cold, uncooked oats as a pre-workout and 99 times out of 100, I would put salt on them. Now, salt doesn't necessarily go with oats and chocolate, protein and almond butter and fruit, but salt and sodium levels in terms of what it can do for muscle contraction, how it can help regulate your hydration in your body to make sure you're not dehydrated within whenever you're in your workout, having that in the pre-workout as well. So, number one, I don't have to put salt on my oats, but number two, we're we're managing your hydration levels as you go through your session as well. So, yes, okay, obviously you want to make sure you're drinking water, but as you sweat and that sort of sodium level in your body starts to deteriorate. We've covered that in terms of the sodium that's in the pre-workout also yep, yep.
Speaker 2:So we, we put uh, not only uh sodium in there. So from an electrolyte perspective, so there's, there's 9.5 grams per one scoop and then uh, 19 milligrams, just say uh, 9.5 milligrams, uh, and then uh, 19 milligrams of sodium. But we also, um, also use pepper as well, and pepper has been shown, pepper extract has been shown to have bio-pyrine is a way of better absorption of ingredients. So everything that we put into there, it's all about bioavailability, of how it gets to those specific systems and the absorption through your stomach. So obviously, when you're digesting for your stomach, some of those components will break down. So how do you make that more bioavailable so that your body can actually use those? And agreed, the little bit extra, um, salt and pepper in there make a big difference, uh, for the bioavailability as well as your electrolytes. You're going to be burning for it as well agree what's that the?
Speaker 1:two big players that haven't spoken about yet well'm getting there.
Speaker 2:I'm saving the best for last. Okay, okay, stay tuned, they're coming. So the pump component, which is blood flow we talked a little bit about some of that and some of the other ingredients. Again, some of these are similar in nature to how they work mechanistically, but also they work in different fashions. There's a pump component to what we focus on. So when you're at the gym and you're lifting, getting that nice pump, blood flow, everything else super sick pump. We went with a few different components there.
Speaker 2:So S7, which is again another proprietary blend. It's a green coffee bean extract, green tea extract, turmeric extract, blueberry extract, broccoli extract, kale extract, tart cherry extract, which all of those have shown, based on the ingredients to really help with blood flow. S7 is one of the best in the market. It's like the gold standard when it comes to the pump components for that, and so a huge fan of S7. It helps with better blood flow, better muscle performance, increases nitric oxide levels within the body, which helps for overall circulation, nutrient delivery to the muscles, enhance muscle pumps, improves endurance, quicker recovery times and allows you to maximize your workout effectiveness. So that's a big one. And then one of my favorite ones is taurine. So taurine really helps with muscle fatigue and basically the oxidative stress of your body itself. So it helps with the recovery aspects, but also helps with electrolyte balances, muscle function, intense intensity of workouts, but also your pump as well. So big one of that as well, big fan of that as well.
Speaker 2:Um, and then, okay, getting into the the nootropic side of the house and your overall like focus and clarity. There's obviously some in there that we talked about already. Um, you have l-tyrosine, which can be focused as a, as a good focus, uh, good focus. Uh, stack right there. But we also um added alpha gpc, uh, yohimi bark extract and gaba. Those are the three ingredients that we really um homed in on specifically around kind of your performance boosters, slash nootropics and everything else that kind of comes along with that, gaba being one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:So, uh, these are the ones. These won't just do. A game for everybody is not maybe as well. First and period these are the ones that aren't usually found in pre-workouts like these are some that's a little bit off piste for the decision yep and uh the.
Speaker 2:The current pre-workout has a lower dose of alpha gpc in it. We're testing um a higher dose of that in the next version. So this is always iterating and getting better right. So we're probably going to boost alpha GPC up in like version 1.1 once our stock is done with this, more to like 150 to 200 for one scoop and then 400 for two scoops, just based on the performance aspects and the research. But again, you know, healthy dosage of GPC in there.
Speaker 2:Gc is really good for faster recovery, muscle building, improved strength, uh, focus and clarity. It also increases igf1, or your human growth hormone factor. Uh. It's a really potentotropic. It's actually neuroprotective, which is great. So helps helps protect the brain um and helps increase, you know, human growth hormone factors, muscle contraction, uh, a huge fan of alpha gpc um. And then the home youimbi extract uh, really good for blood flow and and it's a really good uh energy kick and focus uh type of of um extract. So um helps with like uh circulation, increases adrenaline levels, notice a boost of energy and focus um. So basically you know, helping out with that energy production, focus and clarity, mental clarity, everything else that goes along with that.
Speaker 2:And then the final one, which is my favorite one of all time, which is GABA. Right, gaba is a very unique ingredient that we put into our pre-workout, and what a lot of people don't know, and a lot of people probably haven't researched in the pre-workout area, is that GABA is an amazing sleep aid, so it helps you with your sleep, right? But if you take it as a pre-workout, it actually increases your human growth hormone factor by fivefold, which is crazy. So you're getting the benefits of enhanced human growth hormone factor, meaning the size and volume of your muscles, your ability to recover faster, muscle soreness, your ability to outperform as you're going through. Similar results, obviously, if you're doing sauna, you know, anywhere between five to seven times a week can also increase your natural human growth hormone factor, but GABA is an amazing one for that. So it's been shown that supplementation with GABA increases human growth hormone factor fivefold, which is amazing, right? But it also acts as a nootropic. So we have these things we have GABA receptors in our stomachs and we have GABA receptors in our brain.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of debate now, mechanistically, around how GABA gets absorbed into the brain itself, because we have this thing called the blood brain barrier and but it looks like it's absorbed through our stomachs, ultimately then to our brains itself. What they've noticed through supplementation that. So taking oral supplementation of GABA does increase brain level GABA levels. So that's what you want to see right. You want to see the two things hitting right.
Speaker 2:So there was an original study that was concerned about whether or not it just gets digested in our stomach and it doesn't actually make it to the brain. That appears to not be the case, based on the more recent data studies. And what the data studies have actually shown is that supplementation with GABA just through pill form or nutrient through stomach actually increases the GABA levels in your brain but also reduces stress, gives you a more positive outlook, has been shown to decrease depression, and it also drastically helps with your sleep, most specifically your REM sleep, so you're going to sleep better. But it doesn't make you sleepy. That's the thing. So taking GABA doesn't make you tired, so it's increasing your human growth hormone factor. It's acting as a nootropic, so you have more clarity and focus and it's actually helping you sleep better, less depression, more positive outlook on life. And what has been shown is, if you have low levels of GABA, you have all of these symptoms typically, and if you have elevated levels of GABA, those symptoms seem to reside. So a lot of positives with GABA.
Speaker 2:I'm a huge fan of GABA, one of my favorite supplements to use, and I'm glad we're able to to get it into. Um the dosages there. So you know the for for one scoop it's 750 milligrams of gaba. For two scoops you know it's 1500 milligrams of gaba. You know dosed very well. Um, in those, those pieces there. And I've noticed you know my sleep, like my sleep scores are ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Now many prs of sleep on a regular day crazy like 98 sleep.
Speaker 2:You know scores. Recovery has been much better and I've noticed that difference between it. And that's the thing I want to hit with pre-workouts. So I think a lot of pre-workouts get a bad rap, and probably rightfully so, because they don't have great ingredients in them. They might not be good for you. What we really focused on with this is like, hey, what's good for you, for your performance? It doesn't have a negative health impact. You know to yourself, right, and obviously you're taking copious amounts of caffeine throughout the day. We're dosed appropriately on the caffeine side, so it's nothing crazy, you know. I think you know. If you take total caffeine, really for one scoop of pre-workout, it actually 100 milligrams of of caffeine and hydrous, which is the immediate hit, and then we're at 60 milligrams of the zomex rxn bilate. So it's really 160 milligrams of caffeine per scoop and obviously, um, you know, 160 times two, whatever, that is um 320, 320 yeah, so 320 like for comparison, because people like well, what is that in the double espresso?
Speaker 1:um, I'll talk about energy drinks. Like the majority of the energy drinks us energy drinks are about 300 milligrams of caffeine. So like, if you think of that as as the comparison.
Speaker 2:So if you're having one scoop, that's half of whatever the energy would be yep, and, and I'll tell you like I feel good with one scoop of of pre-workout like that that that 150 or 160 milligrams of caffeine. You also have to remember it's it's 100 immediate hit and then 60 delayed and extended right, so you're not getting like an insane amount of caffeine flooding through your system right away, but it's still a massive energy boost and if I do, if I really need a boost, I'll take two.
Speaker 1:Uh what was the one that we had before.
Speaker 1:It was a chrome based blood that was like 500 milligrams blood was like 500 milligrams of caffeine I think the main thing and I want to sort of hit him on this is like we spent the time in terms of, like, dosing it properly. And I remember the first time seeing the bin like we can't fucking have a pre-workout tub that size, it's massive. And then I was like, okay, well, the scoop's gonna be big because there's so much stuff in it. So it's like we've actually spent the time putting the proper stuff in, so it's not just in it just for the fluff of it being on the label. It's like everything is dosed appropriately so you actually get the benefit of it. And to your point, in terms of like it benefiting you, like, if we think about what the brand is called, hacking your health, like we wanted to be, we wanted to aid your health as well. Yes, okay, we wanted to improve your workout, but like, what else can it do in terms of improving your overall health?
Speaker 2:yep, and, and that's that's. You nailed it right in the head like that's exactly what we wanted to accomplish with this. Exactly what we did, um, and I'll tell you like we're getting so much great feedback from folks, um on it, like it's you know everybody's talking about it's their best pre-workout they've ever tried. They're're, they're definitely loving it. Um, it's a staple to their, their exercise and performance. They haven't noticed any negative impact to it. Um, you know, so it's.
Speaker 2:It's one of those things that we really try to balance it and we will continue, as new research comes out, as new things show in the data studies, to improve the formula. So each new batch that we come out with, you know we'll have a little bit of tweaks in it, like we gab a little bit or maybe we'll decrease it a little bit. You know, um, you know maybe we'll we'll increase. You know definitely planning on increasing uh alpha gpc. So I just got our new mystery flavor uh tested with a higher dosage of alpha gpc and I and I felt that it had a little bit better performance on cognitive function.
Speaker 2:So you know again, like what can we do to make this? You know, continuously better and iterate very similarly to how we do in programming. You know you have a new version of a new release, version one, version 1.1, version 1.2. And so you know we're continuously trying to make it better, but it's all with the mindset of trying to help you out from a performance perspective. And again, if you are like, hey, I really don't like pre workouts, you can get all these ingredients and supplement. You know, in many ways, a gab was a great thing to take before you go to bed, gabba's a great thing to take before you do as a pre-workout. You can get supplements online from Amazon, those types of things, so you can make your own decisions on those. You don't have to necessarily go and buy our specific ones.
Speaker 1:But I would recommend that you do.
Speaker 2:I'd recommend it.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so I think that was good. We covered everything. I'm actually proud you were able to get that in the timeframe, because I feel like, like I said, we could have talked about that for for absolutely hours. Um, all information is available on your on the website, hackinghealthcom, on every ingredient. Uh, what the dosage is the cool feature that Arjun probably spent way more time than he would like to admit to you of, like the the slider. So if you haven't done that, go and play with it.
Speaker 2:Um, and, as I said, all the research one thing I also mentioned, too, is that on the website itself, at hacking your health. If you go to the research side, it lists all the ingredients that we have, all of the, the breakdowns of supplements and all the research literature that we used um while researching this. So if you want to like dive down into a crazy hole of scientific research or why we decided to go certain ways, you can definitely do that.
Speaker 1:Please do. That's what it's there for. Yeah, cool Right. Two reminders Number one I'm going to release the Berlin After Movie, which absolutely was potentially one of the most crazy events that I have ever hosted. I'm going to release that next friday, which will be the 15th, at 1 pm eastern. So if you want to tune in for that, I will be watching it live and laughing at the comments. And next week we're going to talk about how to navigate the holidays, because obviously it's coming up that time of year where everything it becomes a shit show. So what we're going to be doing I mean I'll not be now is getting thanksgiving, but you obviously will, um, make sure you get the proper cream for the pumpkin pie this time and don't fuck it up and have to get the fucking breeds guy to come and save the day. And yeah, what we'll do to navigate the holidays parties, christmas, everything that sort of comes along with us. So tune in next week and we'll go through that awesome.
Speaker 2:That's it for us, man. Thanks for checking in everybody, appreciate you all the time for listening to us and we'll catch you again next same time, same place, next week. See you next week, thank you.