Hey! I'm Greg, and I want to help you live a long, happy, purposeful life. To this end, I created a new podcast, Reason & Wellbeing. You can subscribe to it at the following links:
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/reason-wellbeing/id1690563973 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5A8y2EY7VEEkyf1aMNxsXs?si=082a19b5f32d49a1
I have a PhD in sleep, biological rhythms, nutrition, and metabolism, and undergraduate and master's degrees in exercise physiology. I've had my academic research featured in dozens of international news outlets, cofounded multiple companies, helped athletes to multiple gold medals and World Records, been a TV sleep expert, and given talks around the world about various health-related topics.
If you find this channel helpful, you can also support my work by going to www.buymeacoffee.com/gregpotterphd
I hope you enjoy my work, and please do get in touch via the Comments :-)
When I was a kid, I used to think that advertisers could not lie on tv. 😂 As my own journey with Weight Watchers caused me to read and learn about everything in way more detail, and then the nutrition classes I took, I began to see how many people are fooled for years. People who want to reduce sugar instead consume foods with Agave Nectar, for instance. And then there was the whole “natural” movement, that meant people thought anything that was natural was good, like using belladonna for baby teething.
OMG - sounds so outdated! Calories? No - it all depends on what your body is able to absorb - dependet on det combinations of food types….. Genetics?? What about epigenetics? Microbiome?? Look at twin studies! ………
He does have a document that lists studies that engages with these topics. Available for free from his website. His case is that the cause of the various finding comes down to calories. All the studies are from the journals. There will be those who disagree of course.
Hi since covid i have had awful sleep 3 years of it now and my body just feels so weak and have muscle aches bone aches .how much creatine would i need to take to ses if it helps thanks
Hi James. The studies on COVID have used several doses, from as little as 4 g per day. I think about 0.1 g per kg is likely a good choice. So, if you're 80 kg, let's say, that would be 8 g per day.
There was no consideration for me.. I was 23, working in a cheap gym as a trainer, literally being the rack for 9 hours a day without a break.. I was also a full time student, worked every week day, Saturday, and Sunday. I knew my whole life deadlifts were risky. I didn’t know exactly why.. but having no equipment at my first training job was disheartening but I wasn’t going to quit. I wanted to prove I wasn’t a quitter… so I created 1 hour training programs with nothing but a barbel… including deadlifts and squats, and I didn’t have my clients do anything that I wasn’t doing twice as much.. man, if I could go back I would smack myself. Because for me, there is no fixing a failed 3 level laminectomy…
awesome vid, love the actionable format! Curious about the cold exposure before bed: I've theorized that it could actually be beneficial to sleep because it would help lower body temperature and signal that it's sleep time. What are your thoughts?
Thanks! Using it before bed would almost certainly *worsen* sleep by increasing sympathetic nervous system activity (the "fight or flight" response) and quite possibly by *raising* core temperature via stimulation of brown adipose tissue thermogenesis. Conversely, heating the skin (e.g., via a 10-min hot shower 1 to 2 h before bed) increases the core temperature drop around sleep, supporting healthy sleep (there are many studies showing this). Hope that helps!
I've transcribed this talk with whisper for anyone interested the transcript and subtitles are here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cFEYb6NRZY9bNBBW3MHp1Edy8S8jmdCu?usp=sharing
Hi Greg, I am suffering from exactly what Dr. McGill described, but only at the end of the video did he mention proper conditioning exercises to fix this, but he never gave any examples. I am desperate to find out how to treat this and would like to know if there are some examples of how to address flexion intolerance exercises? Thanks
Oh my good. I've isthmic spondylolisthesis at L5 with grade 1 L5/s1 disc anterolisthesis and the pain rehab dr. exactly told me recently that my backache isn't real and in my head. 😢 I was like what the hell. Its been 6 months and im going from doc to physiotherapists, nobody is able to explain the source of pain. Its either surgery or the other cult who says its in my head. Medical system sucks here in Australia. Everybody is selling their skill, they aren't compassionate with patient.
That last study you covered is fascinating. Sleep dysphoria is crazy lol it's almost like a self fulfilling prophecy: i got low sleep so I must be tired so my brain must be slow today. And the the brain is like 🫡🫡 Just reinforces how Belief is the whole game.
Sorry, we didn't cover this! You might find the full podcast helpful though. It's available here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/reason-wellbeing/id1690563973?i=1000620841219 and here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/reason-wellbeing/id1690563973?i=1000621595045
@@gregpotterphd oh wow that is one amazing podcast! The portion about your dad addressed stenotic backs & how I feel on the daily . My ortho keeps on and on about doing a RFA (radio frequency ablation) - I’ve got a “spondy” (stenosis, 54 yo back). I am not in favor of RFA & am giving physical therapy my focus. I also have a nervous system/autoimmune condition (multiple sclerosis) & simply want to keep active - exercise helps me with every single thing. I am very appreciative of all I am learning about back stuff. Thank you for replying with the full link! I’ve sent it to my dad - semi-pro golfer in his past days - he is also looking for answers and hope for the back! Cheers!
I’ve taken hundred of supplements for long covid. Only creatine helped me. I can even say it saved my life, from a very deep depression. Not a depression from being bummed out etc, but an indescribable dark place. But it doesn’t seems to now work as well anymore. Maybe cycling creatine is better.
read Chris m,asterjohns "dealing with creatine side effects" on his sub stack, your probably dealing with a vitamin deficiency or a bottleneck in your system that's stopping it from working. also try nmn and nr, they worked better than creatine for me and I have mycotoxin poisoning, sibs and long covid, without the nmn and nr I'd be dead
Also Chris masterjohn says we all need about 3-5 grams of creatine, so maybe you need to increase your dose, cuz I know most creatine directions only advise 1 gram.
Thank you for this very informative episode! There is a lot to take out of it. I may overheared this, but does the body (in an overall healthy human) "takes" the sleep it needs or can one sleep to long by not setting the waking time for instance? I often hear the warning you also mentioned, that if one sleeps to long, this can be harmful. I got the point, that this bias can be explaned by the part of the population that usually sleeps longer due to illness, but can a healthy person get less healthy by sleeping longer? And - if you dont mind - can a longer time sleeping make up for worse quality of sleep?
Pleasure! Yes, in general the body takes the sleep it needs when given the chance. Regarding whether more time asleep can compensate for worse sleep quality, I'd need more space than I have here to give you a proper answer. But in short, duration, quality, timing, and regularity all matter and influence each other, and it can be helpful to temporarily use interventions that actually slightly *reduce* sleep duration but that dramatically improve sleep quality and regularity, as in the case of bedtime restriction therapy for insomnia.
Definitely agree with the mindset about sleep, I think all the scare mongouring over the years from the likes of Mathew Walker etc have made people hyper conscience about negative impact of the lack of sleep. We have definitely lost a bit of prospective. Thank for for the excellent content. Please keep it coming!!!!
This was so insightful, had always wondered wether keeping my wake up time on weekends was a actually advantageous when I was slightly sleep deprived over the week!
Maybe there's a misunderstanding about yoga. Yoga practices are split in a lot of schools. You have yoga that fits for relaxing at night and you have yoga that is basically calisthenics, which is to my understanding is approved as quite effective (looking at gymnasts and whatnot). I tried some of it out of interest thinking it'd be a lighter training session in between, sort of recovery session when I couldn't add more gym training. Turned out I couldn't complete a single session perfectly, it was heavy stuff due to all the adjustments on leverages and compromising range of motions where the muscle isn't at its strongest. I liked Greg Nuckols' beginner squat program design where you would start the sets with AMRAP so you would really be honest about how your strength had developed. And I suppose as a beginner you see much more progress throughout the block unlike with very experienced lifters. For myself I discovered that when I got into groove and I was supposed to do 8 RM on that week of the progression, the AMRAP ended up being at 14. Even though I was referring to the intermediate program with % of RM for the weight of the week, that AMRAP helped keep the designed intensity and not let me willy nilly perform subpar. It was the first time I really found out how much I could push and surprised myself about how different it feels to approach failure with a bigger load (I also had access to a proper squat rack with safety side bars so I could just go if I felt like there might be one more rep in me) and it was due to that program design. As a side effect it also taught me how to push in an exercise like squat when you get tired, where it's free weights and a lot of weight too, you need to keep your body lined up while squeezing all out and it's quite different from isolated exercises. And learning how at the end of the block you're quite exhausted and hit your biggest weights, you think you don't have more left, you feel weak and tired but you can still give a rep or two more. It's not very intuitive until you try it.
can you reliably increase loading in yoga/pilates? it seems like it could be a decent gateway to resistance training but I imagine the benefits would stall pretty quick once someone hits the point where the workouts just aren't that challenging anymore (and most people just doing pilates in a group fitness class aren't gonna push themselves to find ways to make it harder)
Depends what you mean by reliable. Calisthenics is thought to be pretty effective. You can most of the time adjust the exercises to be at less advantageous leverages just like at the gym, and increasing volume and cutting rest times. For example if you're set for 50 handstand pushups, you might be too fit for calisthenics. I'm not aware of many of those people. Obviously in some exercises less easy and you reach some limits faster. However it obviously also depends on how much you're into it, how much are you willing to find ways and if you enjoy doing that stuff. People can get pretty jacked like that, but there's always the question if the person is thinking of their potential gains or their realistic gains. Similar to how people look at their programs and diets at the gym and think they are losing gains if they skip a rep or a day, while they might not be committed to train for the next 20 years and turn every stone for the full genetic potential. Most of the people seem to be more than satisfied with the "80%" of the gains that come from committing to about any method of training and sports with some caveats. I'm thinking people more commonly run out of interest than ability to make gains and challenge themselves in calisthenics fashion. Gym training just feels better and easier (at least in my experience, I hate the compromised muscle advantages and the burn). But there's instructions about yoga training with muscle building in mind out there. With the vast amount of yoga schools it's just easy to build an image of how a yoga session would look like yet be with completely different goal in mind. On the other hand for someone with training goals the yoga might be just a period of training rather than their complete training for the rest of their life. It would make sense. Or it could be compementary too, yoga emphasises more the ability to move in space or control in space, the mobility, and thus might give some minor convenience factors to daily life over gym. Not that gym wouldn't give you mobility, but the movements are a bit more restricted in space.
Somone recently said Stuart was more interested in Himself looking proud, I think it's enthusiasm that he has and this video proves how much he cares about people. Seems like a great man to me.
Half way throught this and already super impressed with the content. Much more nuanced content to any other sleep video ive watched. Cant wait for future videos. Keep up the great work!
Unfortunately, it appears that way! I’ll actually read his books and figure things out on my own with my back problems I had! Also taught myself to lose the fear of haven a fragile back That may not heal, he projects that at times! He seems very against flexibility, and only stability. I personally combined stability exercises with flexibility/mobility moves, such as Feldenkrais techniques. Along with many body weight exercises But all in all Stuart is a very sound knowledgeable human
His book Back Mechanic cured my back issues after years of other treatment failed, including surgery. I was almost about to get a spinal fusion and then I found this book.
Just been through the book methodically 2x and sorting out the protocol, into 1st month already noticeable difference. Highly recommend. Tx for great comment.
