Mind Muscle with Simon de Veer
Mind Muscle with Simon de Veer
Junk Food Journals, AlphaBrain Exposed, and Weighing Cardio vs. Strength
Ever wondered if tracking only your "bad" food choices could actually improve your overall nutrition? In this episode of the Mind Muscle Podcast, we kick things off with a bold new approach to food logging that's both effective and unexpectedly amusing. By focusing solely on junk food, clients found themselves more aware of their eating habits, setting the stage for more comprehensive tracking down the road. We share some entertaining anecdotes from this unorthodox strategy and discuss its benefits in easing into detailed nutrition goals.
Next, we go behind the headlines of the lawsuit against Onnit’s AlphaBrain supplement, promoted by Joe Rogan and Aubrey Marcus. We dissect the self-funded 2016 study that claimed to back AlphaBrain, pointing out its methodological flaws and conflicts of interest. Moreover, we touch on the broader issue of health and fitness headlines misrepresenting scientific studies, which often leads the public astray. We also discuss Gary Brecka's recent media spotlight for his so-called "Superhuman Protocol" that allegedly transformed Dana White's health, weighing the true impact of these methods against the undeniable benefits of a solid training regimen.
To wrap up, we revisit the ongoing debate of weightlifting versus cardio, sparked by a thought-provoking article in Barron's. Emphasizing the importance of a balanced approach to fitness, we critique the article's engagement tactics and discuss why combining strength and endurance training is essential, especially as we age. Our discussion advocates for seeing the bigger picture rather than falling into binary thinking. As always, we encourage our listeners to keep the mind and muscle intertwined, ensuring that there are no gains without brains. Keep lifting and learning!
Producer: Thor Benander
Editor: Luke Morey
Intro Theme: Ajax Benander
Intro: Timothy Durant
For more, visit Simon at The Antagonist
Welcome to the Mind Muscle Podcast. Here's your host, simon DeVere, and welcome back to Mind Muscle, the place we study the history, science and philosophy behind everything in health and fitness. Today I am Simon Devere and there's nothing new except all that has been forgotten, all right. So recently I told you guys about a nutrition logging hack tip whatever, logging all your bad stuff. I wanted to give you guys an update on how that's going for me. Kind of funny little happening there. Um, there's a lawsuit currently being filed against on it. Um, for false advertising. It's actually a supplement that we have discussed on the show in the past. This is for um, alpha brain, and we did discuss this on previous episode, I think, when we were running down Joe Rogan's supplement stack. So I want to bust into that lawsuit. And then one other thing that caught my eye this week Gary Bureka is getting headlines for saving dana white's life. Um, they posted their, their training and protocol online, so we have that to review. Um, and then, yeah, we're going to finish up actually on sort of an age-old debate in fitness, but, um, yeah, let's take one more look at, uh, weightlifting versus cardio article I came across across, actually in Barron's of all places. I actually like the angle I took, so we'll hit that one last, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, recently, you'll remember, I was talking about a nutrition logging strategy. To me, one of the biggest downsides of logging is that it's tedious, takes time, it's kind of boring. Logging is that it's tedious, takes time, it's kind of boring. So I've actually come up with something that I've been using with myself and a couple of my clients to get into the habit of logging, but that was only logging your bad food. So one part that I didn't even foresee in doing this. I've just now started logging Again. I got about a week under my belt and I employed this strategy on myself, so I've only been writing down the bad stuff.
Speaker 1:Unintended consequence that I wasn't thinking about is all of my clients actually get to see my nutrition logs, or at least anybody that I'm coaching their nutrition logs on um. We do this through an app called my fitness pal, um. You can link up with your friends like you can with any app, um, but so, anyway, anybody that I'm coaching with nutrition, we are linked up there and uh, yeah, so, anyway, some some people got a shock when they were logging their food and they saw, you know, like, let's see. Well, yesterday, as an example, there was some French toast on there. I think there was like four Kit Kat miniatures. That might have been all that I did yesterday, but anyway, just you know, there's been about a week of logs looking like that, where Simon's eating nothing but junk food, probably ranging between roughly 200 to 500 calories. So, yeah, it looks like to some of the people I've been coaching with nutrition that I am starving myself and eating junk food simultaneously. So anyway, I did have to explain this strategy to a couple of clients as to why they were seeing only junk food on my logs, but simultaneously I'm actually doing this with somebody who has never logged before. So I still think that it's actually a nice strategy just to get your muscles warmed up for full nutrition logging. So, yeah, anyway, I'm actually doing this with a client right now.
Speaker 1:First week, we're doing just where we log our junk. Week two, we're actually going to log everything. I always consider that actually just standardizing your nutrition in the process. So then, after you know, a week of logging junk, a week of logging everything, then we're actually going to have some targeted changes like caloric goals, macros that we will be striving for, and then, in week three of all of this. That's when we'll finally kind of get rolling of all of this. That's when we'll finally kind of get rolling with, I think, what a lot of people think of as step one. But admittedly, it takes us about two weeks to get into step one, even when we're moving relatively quickly, believe it or not.
Speaker 1:But no, mostly I just thought that this was funny. Getting called out by my clients for all of the horrible food I was eating. I already feel like I have imposter syndrome anyway. So I did. I had a lot of junk food that I had to rationalize to some fat loss clients as to. Why are you seeing all this junk on Simon's logs? Why are you seeing all this junk on Simon's logs?
Speaker 1:Anyway, speaking of false advertising, that's exactly what Onnit, the supplement company that was co-founded by Joe Rogan and Aubrey Marcus less famous than Joe, but at least in my world, aubrey is also a pretty big name. Aubrey was really popular in ayahuasca circles back in like 2014. He's kind of known as, like, the psychedelic CEO. Many others now are kind of playing that same Burning man character, particularly in Silicon Valley companies. But in fairness to Aubrey Marcus, I think he started the trend of tech bros, like cosplaying with psychedelics and transcendental language and, yeah, like weekend retreats and Burning Mans and all that. Aubrey was on the front end of all of that and Aubrey was on the front end of all of that. But yeah, anyway, obviously I've got some priors with Joe. We've talked about his supplements, probably showing my hand a little bit there on my feelings about Mr Aubrey Marcus, but no, I think we can leave aside my perception of how they came to fame.
Speaker 1:The case is pretty cut and dry. It's talking about a supplement, alphabrain that we did discuss on that episode reviewing Joe Rogan's supplements. I would say in a way that this case is actually bigger than AlphaBrain. You can kind of almost take this case, or at least the findings of the effectiveness of the substance, to broadly be representative of the field of supplements that we call nootropics. So anyway, the lawsuit being filed is that they were advertising with false, misleading and deceptive claims.
Speaker 1:Go to the website right now and you will see claims for AlphaBrain that it supports memory, promotes memory, promotes mental processing and helps with flow state. Every single one of those statements on their website has an asterisk beside it and then, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, the asterisk refers to the statement that these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Um, I also did look at the the work cited on on its page, and so it's. It's actually three papers, um that that are supposed to be evidence for the claims they're making there, one from 88, one from 1991, from 2004. Um, all of them are by one scientist with a very difficult to pronounce last name, but I'm not going to butcher that. It's on their website if you want to go check it out, and what you'll see is that all three studies are again actually just referring to the flow state, not a discussion on specific ingredients or mechanisms that induce it. So those studies being cited and put even on the page. There it's like oftentimes it appears to be an appeal to authority that most people are just going to see the papers and then not check the content of the papers.
Speaker 1:And just because we're discussing a legal thing and I've already name dropped two people, let's be clear that actually Joe Rogan and Aubrey Marcus are not named in this lawsuit at all. They are the co-founders of Onnit, which was sold to Unilever. So yeah, just so we don't get any slander games or anything like that, this lawsuit has nothing to do with Joe Rogan and Aubrey Marcus, but if we want to talk about the history of the substance in question, we do have to talk about those two people that have nothing to do with this lawsuit. So, anyway, they are free and clear to do what they have already done. There's not going to be any ramifications for them or any businesses associated with them because they already sold on it. But yeah, so anyway, a while back, why I think we can't avoid talking Joe Rogan in this.
Speaker 1:He has been the biggest promoter of it. It's on his current list of supplements he takes. This is a cool quote from Joe on his show about it. I always take AlphaBrain. This is a cool quote from Joe on his show about it. I always take AlphaBrain. Take it every time I have to talk to a scientist. I take this shit. It's not horse shit or snake oil or placebos, it's real. This stuff is the shit. Shoot McGavin famously ate pieces of shit for breakfast, but remember him getting defeated by Happy Gilmore at the AT&T Invitational. So yeah, anyway, not sure about the endorsement from Joe, but, no jokes aside, joe has done a lot to promote it over the years.
Speaker 1:He Nor Aubrey is listed as a defendant. Listed as a defendant, but again, it is relevant because AlphaBrain was one of the core products that they used to launch the brand, and many of the things that are being alleged actually occurred while Unilever was not the owner. Unilever is going to pay the bill for it, but these things actually happened before the purchase. So one of the things that actually does come into question in this lawsuit is a self-funded 2016 study that Onnit did to back up the claims of brain function. When you actually read the study even the one that they paid to, have done not the three papers that had nothing to do with it that I cited earlier, even their own paper didn't reach the conclusions that they wound up promoting and even doing science in that fashion of well backwards. But anyway, let's actually get into the substance of the study that Onnit paid for and I think, even though this is a legal hearing and it'll play out in courts and obviously whoever has the best lawyers wins we're not really concerned with that. We're just health and fitness focused people trying to decide what supplements to take. I think you'll have a pretty good idea of whether alpha brain or nootropics are something that you want to invest money in. Um, I think that will be pretty clear by the time we get done with this um. So any study title is a randomizedized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Parallel Group Ethics Study of AlphaBrain, registered Trademark Administered Orally and actually just sidebar.
Speaker 1:I always talk about this but I do a little bit of investing and I've had folks ask like what's your edge? Yeah, in markets, and one of the only things that I can actually respond as an edge that I have is I actually read the things that people pretend to have read, or take summaries or other people's word for. So in finance that would be like earnings reports, fed notes, things like that. I will actually read myself and I make decisions based on what I read in the report, not the headlines about the report. Unless you do this, you're never going to see what a huge gap there is between those two things. The other field that I see this happening a lot in and I think it's why it trained me for it with finance but it is health and fitness the headlines versus the studies. Actually reading them. I've just seen in the years there is a huge gap which has just basically taught me to always go look at those things.
Speaker 1:I'm not kidding when I tell you it is far more common that people stretch that truth than they actually report it accurately. If there was a group that I could tell you consistently reports this stuff accurately, I would. Nobody that I'm aware of has a good track record reporting on science. And yeah, obviously I think health and fitness may be the worst segment, but certainly not the only one. But anyway, I actually went in and looked at the study. They did 26 different cognitive tests and their own results did show that there was no statistically significant difference between the alpha brain and placebo groups. That's from their own data. And then actually just sometimes you have to do a little more than read the study.
Speaker 1:So one of the first persons named in the study was someone named Todd Solomon. When I Googled his name, I did find that he did receive funds for consulting with on it. Second name named on the study was someone named Jarrett Leach. Also Googled, that person's name also received funds for consulting with Onnit. That groundbreaking investigative journalism did take me roughly 30 seconds, but it's pretty clear that this study was sponsored by Onnit. The company paid the two lead scientists Onnit. That's a big problem. Obviously that's a conflict of interest, um, and also just not how science is done. Um, they worked backwards from something that they wanted to be true and then, as we saw, with the? Um, the test they actually ran versus the? Um, what was reported in its findings? Um, it absolutely was stretched um to try to prove the the point that that alpha brain needed in order to to market their, their product. The whole study was an attempt to provide a rationale for marketing a product. That's pretty clear.
Speaker 1:Alphabrain was formulated, according to Aubrey Marcus, by his stepmother, who is a homeopath and acupuncturist. He had stated of the launching of AlphaBrain on a different podcast a while back that the last piece was really gritting a strong medical advisory team and scientific team that's been running our trials. That's a quote. So no, disagree, that's not the last piece. You should actually build a product that works. You shouldn't go find an advisory team to say that the product works. Why not just build something that works? But that's kind of. The issue, though, is that Aubrey Marcus's training was as a marketer, and he really designed and engineered this product, just like his first company, which was a marketing company. They had the drug formulation and then they got the science and then they did the ads. So anyway, this lawsuit again is actually just seeking monetary and statutory damages not specified, and again it is at the company's current owners. Onnit's owners now are Unilever.
Speaker 1:But again I kind of did want to talk about the founders, um, but again I I kind of did want to talk about the founders, and and Joe, he's a lot more famous than than Aubrey is, but actually in some ways I think Aubrey's had a pretty outsized influence on culture without his name being. You know, he's very successful and certainly some people know him, but I don't think he's, he's um household name the way he would want to be. No kidding, but um, no. So again, and I kind of showed my hand a little bit here. But Aubrey Marcus really extols this perception that he is a very conscious and transcendent person, speaks of himself how I often hear others speak about, like Buddha or Jesus, depending on their own religious upbringing, literally. Even him selling on it to Unilever he framed as an act of grace of sorts.
Speaker 1:Out of all the potential buyers, unilever stood out. Well, no one is perfect. They really understand leading with purpose and I couldn't possibly have greater resonance with the leaders on the team that we'll be working with. Oh, and this was funny to me, the principal was even at Burning man the year I met my wife. Of course, because that is how incestuous Silicon Valley deals get done out there at Burning man in the circle of trust. At Burning man in the circle of trust, but anyway, probably spilling too many secrets. But no, it's with no irony. He touts a company that has actually a pretty clouded history with social and environmental issues and he kind of extends them his transcendental fake hippie clout, them his transcendental fake hippie clout. Unilever uses palm oil, that they participate in slave and child labor. So again, I'm literally not the ethics or moral authority here. I'm just kind of calling out that neither is this guy, and I think of the two of us he seems to be pretending to be one, certainly a lot more than I ever. I literally never pretend to be one. No, and actually you know I want to say sidebar quickly.
Speaker 1:I was having this discussion with some parents about I have done ayahuasca and it was a personal and profound experience for me, but I actually have hesitation recommending it to people and one of the reasons is it's not the substance itself. It's actually your fellow humans, and I think that people do need to exercise caution if they ever choose to do something like that where they choose to do it. If you start investigating, you're going to hear a lot about set and setting. That's really, really important, but that, to me, would even extend to the other people attending the ceremony. I've been to more than one ayahuasca journey and I didn't see this my first time, um, because I couldn't, because it was my first time but multiple journeys actually showed me a group of people that like to use these ceremonies.
Speaker 1:Um, people are in a very vulnerable psychological state when they are on the other end of it and, sadly, there are a lot of people who, admittedly, are in the health and wellness space. A lot of these people are going to have yoga retreats or health and wellness products and services. This is literally when I learned about Onnit and Aubrey Marcus. He was being taught as one of the success stories and cult hero of these ayahuasca circles and a lot of the people that were promoting this I wound up for a time getting close with and then seeing that actually they had business models that preyed upon certain aspects of people's psychology that I certainly wasn't comfortable with. They see themselves as being very enlightened, free thinking people. I see them as selling to people who are on drugs and in a compromise state, um, so anyway, this is a sidebar, this has nothing to do.
Speaker 1:I've never done ayahuasca with aubrey and joe um, but I've done it with a lot of people in the health and wellness space and I do say be careful. If you go on a psychedelic retreat it's not the substance so much I'm worried about, as the people that you go with For best results, do it with someone that you are actually close with, who doesn't really want anything from you, and then I think you will have the best experience possible. There are sharks swimming around in those waters and and they don't look like sharks. When you first see them, um, they'll probably be wearing birkenstocks and saying really nice things. But anyway, I I did get a little bit off course, um I I just kind of want to summarize again on nootropics, alpha brain and this lawsuit against On it.
Speaker 1:I actually didn't. I should have. Maybe I could add some good quotes. But if we run back the tape on my review of Joe's supplements, I'm pretty sure that I co-signed four Protein, creatine, fish oil and athletic greens. Obviously, I just did my piece on athletic greens. As long as we know it's a multivitamin, I'm still fine cosigning those four. Alphabrain and nootropics were on his list. I didn't cosign it then and I still don't now.
Speaker 1:The science on nootropics doesn't really show any positive results except for people that have serious health issues. If you are a generally healthy person, which most people listening to health and fitness podcasts fit the bin of how I'm using that term you're probably not doing bad enough that you would actually get a benefit from anything like this. No-transcript naps or some extra sleep would be way more effective than anything being marketed on that three-hour podcast. Yeah, so no, I that. Um, nothing new to report on alpha brain and nootropics. I don't think that these are very efficacious supplements. Um, these are big problems people have. So this is a supplement that appeals to a very, very common problem being, um, tired, overworked, you name it. Those are problems that usually have nothing to do with the health and fitness regimen. They really typically are downstream from the challenges that you're facing in your life. So I really can't solve those problems.
Speaker 1:All I know is, broadly, that when you're sleeping, when you're actually getting sleep, you handle the stresses that come up better, you do everything better. So, yeah, no, yeah, skip nootropics. Actually prioritize sleep, and I actually get called out for that one because people accuse me of having status and privilege with that. And I've been waking up at 4am to go deal with other people's stuff for years now, so I'm not sure where that comes from. But, yeah, working six days a week and getting up at four, I guess now makes even me because I get good sleep. That's well.
Speaker 1:No, I guess what people are getting at and I understand this is that, like, work obviously puts demands on your life and so some people are not in the position where they can just, you know, control what happens with their day. I get that. I'm a personal trainer who has a child out of the 24 hours in a day. The vast majority of them are not mine. So I really, really get that the part that I feel like people aren't hearing in me, because I do screen time review, I look at stuff and and also I listen in conversations and people are just frankly citing way too many television shows and movies for me to think that people aren't staying up and watching television past the time where they actually could have gone to bed, or again just getting dialed into content, and I'm not above this myself, guys. This is again why I'm pretty sure that you have time.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I stay up a little later than I should, watching movies, playing video games, doing things that aren't helping my goals, and then I pay for it on the other end. So, anyway, if I am critiquing your sleeping habits, please don't be you know, don't accuse me of some of the stuff I've been accused of Sometimes, like I said, we often project. So I know good and well if I'm not getting good sleep, it's choices I'm making and I need to get on it because no one else is going to come and help me. That's it. It's the only place I'm coming from in the sleep thing. Oh yeah, that. And nootropics up. Stop wasting your money on it. Unless you have money and you really like pissing it into the toilet, then in that regard, it works great. Anyway, next piece I hope you guys never buy AlphaBrain, by the way. And there we go. There goes the Unilever sponsorship. So we'll have to work on some better monetization techniques for your boy here.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so there is a guy, Gary Brekka. He's getting credit for saving Dana White's life. Lots of articles popping on it, so I actually watched a video of them breaking down. Well, you know, show my hand again. I'm gonna say a lot of bad things about this guy, Gary. So let's say some nice stuff up top.
Speaker 1:Dana White did make a great transformation. It is visually impressive and it actually does seem to me like he did a number of things correct. We'll get into all of that, but 36 pounds of weight loss is the headline. Even in the pictures, though, his body composition has just improved a lot. It's clearly added significant muscle mass while reducing his body fat. And then, when I was hearing him describe the whole transformation, he said it took about 18 months, which even that that was cool. I like to hear like a realistic timeframe for once.
Speaker 1:But then he does credit this guy, guy gary brekka, human biologist, um, as opposed to other ones, I guess. But uh, yeah, his uh super human protocol. That's at least what uh, dana white was crediting with his transformation. So gary's superhuman protocol, what it looks like. He has this pulse electromagnetic field pad that you sleep on this magnetism. I really try to represent this as well as they said it. But okay, this magnetism mimics the earth and that's why you should sleep on it. They don't explain how, if you're not sleeping on that, how, sleeping anywhere else on the earth, your magnetism would somehow be thrown off from the earth's magnetism that the PF pad is simulating. Don't worry about any of that stuff, just make sure you get the pad and sleep on it. That's prong one of the superhuman protocol.
Speaker 1:Um, number two, cold plunging. It's uh. So dana white was doing 50 degrees for three minutes. Um, my version coffee, he says, which, admittedly, I'm hearing that one more and more. Um, that's just. It is funny how people, like parrots, just start chirping and saying the same things and so that that's like one of those cool flexes right now. Um, just like, tell people you don't actually have to do it, Just tell people that you, you cold plunge and that you don't do coffee. Um, that's the people that are looking for clout and conversations. That's what they're saying right now. Make sure you're on trend with that. But yeah, anyway, we've talked about cold plunging. It's cool, but that's prong two.
Speaker 1:Oxygen therapy that is prong three. So with this, they actually are putting an oxygen mask on and doing basically kind of like what looks like a light warmup on a treadmill. Um, they. They say that this prepares the body to work out and delivers oxygen. Um, I hear that again. I hear them say it. Um, I'm not sure that's been a problem for any humans on Earth prior. But there you go. There's a thing they say and they convince people too. Fourth prong is red light therapy. So 20 minutes in infrared light, that's at least justified through reducing inflammation and promoting recovery.
Speaker 1:So that, right there, that superhuman protocol, sleeping on the PF pad the night before doing your cold plunge, your oxygen therapy, and then the red light therapy, now you're ready to work out, all of that leads up to your workout. But again, I want to say that Dana White credited the superhuman protocol, not his workout. So this is kind of like the issue that I'm going to have, obviously, is that when? Actually, because now we can actually talk about some good things before I just crap on the rest of it. But so, yeah, so then Dana White gets done with that superhuman protocol and then he goes into the gym, but they're still running the camera and I actually recognize the guy he's training with. He's literally a former Mr Universe is Dana White's trainer and I got to see them working out. He was actually just choosing very smart exercises.
Speaker 1:So yeah, anyway, you probably see where I'm going with this, but it's just interesting me that Dana White gives all the credit to Gary Brekka. That pad he sleeps on, the jacuzzi he takes the little mask, treadmill sesh and then the lights that they sit under. That that was key in his, you know, transformation, and not the training that he did with a former Mr Olympia. That wasn't key. Huh, I know that I have almost nothing but unpopular opinions, but I just I don't understand how people would ever think those four nebulous silly things he did before training with somebody who's kind of, objectively, one of the best at it in the world, why people would think that the all the fucking dancing around he does before he gets in the gym has anything to do. But anyway, that that was just. Uh, that's funny to me.
Speaker 1:And then one other piece, because then when, um, so, gary brekka, now they're sitting down at a table and they're running down his supplements and stuff, and then literally quote so yeah, dana's testosterone was low, so we put him on TRT. Not a huge deal there. Direct quote. So I just want to highlight disagree majorly, so again by this point in the video I had now seen Dana White training in the gym with a former Mr Universe and then his wellness guru admitting that he put him on TRT. So I could literally stop the segment right here. I'm going to keep going because I want to shit on this guy a bit more. But apologies for language, One day I'll get that. I owe my daughter money if she ever listens. But no, that's it. That's like the two effective things that well, I'll give them three.
Speaker 1:You don't need the PF pad, but it seems that Dana White started to prioritize sleep train with weights and he got on testosterone. You know order of magnitude. Obviously getting on testosterone is number one. The little sleep pad, the lights, all the other stuff that is complete bullshit. This guy's secret sauce is no secret, it's the testosterone own. But yeah, and then again, this is just funny to me because, like any good internet influencer, not a huge deal there the secret that the only value that you're adding actually leaked out. So you better minimize that. Otherwise, why the hell would anybody buy the superhuman protocol? And nobody should. If you want the results that Dana White got, you should just get on the TRT and get a good trainer. That's how you get Dana White's results. It has nothing to do with all the other crap that they were doing.
Speaker 1:Oh and then one other note, because this one's popular and so he's pushing this and this probably makes him get clicks and his name out there. But he's also got Dana White buying into the idea that sugar is toxic, so he basically turned him into like a West Side woman, even though I think Dana hates the idea of trans. But no, he eats like a woman who's been focused on fat loss for the last 10 years in Santa Monica Oddly specific, because you know where I Um. But yeah, it's just funny to me when, like a UFC fighting guy, I know that no one gets out of there. You know little narrow echo chambers. Um, they think what they're doing sounds like hardcore and tough. Um, anyway, when Gary gets done with UFC guys, he can come out to the West side. There's a whole bunch of housewives who will eat the same thing up once he's done with Dana. But anyway, oh man, I'm a mean guy.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, some nice stuff in his program. The hormone therapy, first off. That really does work First, second and third place in his program Easily prioritizing sleep great idea. Training consistently good idea, even though I don't agree with the dietary approach. Just being mindful and intentional, even with bad ideas, is actually going to produce results. So, anyway, those are the things that I think were effective in the program that Gary recommended to him.
Speaker 1:The vast majority of it, though, is exactly what I slam here on this show all the time as majoring in the minors, expensive, piss, waste of time. Everything in the superhuman protocol minus the TRT is a complete waste of time. Protocol minus the TRT is a complete waste of time. Well, I don't want to say that because there was saunas and cold plunges. If you like those things and they add value to you, then great, but when you look at the before and after of Dana White and then you look at those things, those have nothing to do with the picture that you're looking at. They're nice things, but, again, the price point that he sells them at is absolutely ridiculous, and the the promises he makes for for what they can provide to your health and fitness are completely insane. Um, so, yeah, uh.
Speaker 1:In short, what works versus what doesn't? Good diet works. Fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean protein, healthy fats, all that stuff Uh, it's all that stuff. It's got to be in moderation. If you're doing weight loss, there has to be a caloric deficit. But knock it off with. This thing is toxic or that thing is toxic. Well, in a way, I can liberate you from the stress if you accept it, if you love that stress and you love stressing about those things for no benefits in terms of your result. Keep it up, don't let me stop you from that.
Speaker 1:Active lifestyle is also a great idea, unless subsidizing. Gary Brekka's lifestyle is important. Don't do that. Drugs work. Weird thing to say, but no, that's really why drugs are prescribed is. They work really quick and really fast.
Speaker 1:And since I am one of these like evidence-based, you know, workout, fitness, wellness guys, I actually want to throw a bone to the doctors out there, just in case we haven't listened to the show. But like, drugs have a purpose and doctors aren't bad for prescribing them. There's like this narrative that like big pharma and the doctors are out there to screw you and I just honestly don't think that. Like there's tons of doctors out there that like don't think exercise and nutrition is important, but they're just dealing with Americans that are coming into their office and need an answer right now and so like if, instead of giving you a pill to directly do something they told you to, like go work out and eat. Well, what would happen? Most people would just die a few weeks later.
Speaker 1:So, no, this is where, like, I actually feel like, even though I am one of these health and fitness guys, I want to defend the docs here a little bit, because it's people from my space that are, you know, kind of trying to get into their lane and step on their toes and tell them how to do their job, and I really don't think we should do that tell them how to do their job and I really don't think we should do that. Drugs work. You probably shouldn't use too many, but yeah, this idea that doctors are out here prescribing drugs to purposely fuck people up, I actually don't buy into that at all. I think they're actually just sticking within their training, within the incentives in the places that they work in and all that. It's, frankly, a lot less interesting than a lot of the really fun conspiracy theories I've heard about why doctors do it. But yeah, anyway, drugs work.
Speaker 1:Trt is the most effective thing in Brekka's program and, yeah, I actually do kind of want to spend a little more time on Brekka because he's getting a little bit of fame going right now. And so Brekka he actually has this test and this is what is giving him his big claim and the headlines is that he saved Dana White's life, right. So he runs a test on Dana White and then he tells him you have 10.4 years to live. And then they go on their fitness journey and then he changes all this stuff and then now you're hearing oh, you know, he saved my life, but what was Brekka's training Like? How does he even know how to do this skill of telling people how long they're going to live? So experts do say that the test is based on dodgy science.
Speaker 1:But prior to selling health and wellness, he did work for a life insurance company. His job was to purchase existing policies in order to collect a death benefit. So again I have to go back to my market experience here. But there is no science on death prediction. But the equities trader in me knows that you actually can apply probabilistic thinking to markets to win consistently without actually knowing anything. So I know some people are going to have a hard time getting this. But he doesn't have to actually know when somebody is going to die to successfully trade these contracts. There's a set of conditions that one could run that would probabilistically show him that in 100 trades you're going to win X number of times. Obviously, if you're in Vegas, you just need 51 out of 100, right, that's an edge you win. I'm not going to turn this into an options show, but I have strategies I've been trading for over four years now that have over a 90% win rate. Don't even want to convince people to trade options. I'm just trying to convince the point that you can actually use a set of parameters and an understanding of probabilistic thinking to make what look to appear to be predictions. I know how to do this in markets.
Speaker 1:Gary Brekka knows how to do this with life insurance policies. But then one day he got smart and he was like I should send these death predictions to celebrities and bilk them for a whole bunch of money. So, anyway, he has a death prediction thing and then on his site he has services that range from $600 blood work all the way up to his $134,000 blueprint. Dana White is not the only celebrity using his services. That's how you know he's good. He also does P Diddy, david Beckham and Kendall Jenner, and, like two months ago, that would have been a really cool list of names, because P Diddy's house hadn't even been raided yet, so you could still use that one. But yeah, tons of famous people use him, so he's got to be good, right? No, actually Brekka has no medical license. Again, he sold or he purchased insurance contracts and made some money there, but besides the celebrity endorsements, there are no credentials. There are no experts supporting his test. So now also, let's be fair Either Gary Brekka is right and everybody else is wrong, or everybody else is wrong, and yeah, it could be. He could be the only one who knows. But yeah, his company is called 10X Health. His co-founder is this guy, grant Cardone. He markets himself as a real estate investor. He also is now getting drummed up in some litigation and talk about fraud.
Speaker 1:We have a lot of those TikTok-style real estate people here in Los Angeles. There's a couple that actually come to my neighborhood and they pull up in a rented Lambo and shoot their content. So anyway, I don't know where I'm going with this, other than just to know that when you guys see these people online that are even pushing whether it's health, fitness, real estate finance most of these people really are D-list actors. I guarantee you they probably tried to audition for a network national commercial for my wife, never booked. They kind of figured out that they either weren't attractive or talented enough to make it in Hollywood, and so then they switch over to marketing real estate on TikTok, which, sorry to slander this guy, grant Cardone, without knowing him there's a guy that sounds a lot like him, that does the same thing in my neighborhood, but no, anyway, just birds of a feather flock together.
Speaker 1:All you kind of see when you look at Gary Brekka's business is just a really, really sketchy business. Well, let's not even say sketchy, because he's finding people who are happy to pay for it. So, no, not sketchy biz. Well, let's not even say sketchy because he's finding people who are happy to pay for it. Um, so no, not sketchy um, but we're talking about people that that don't have tons of money to lose on nothing, and that is again the part that I care about. Um, I don't care if david beckham and p diddy spend another 134000 a piece on another Superman blueprint. Literally, who cares? Not me. I'm being really clear in that. What I don't want is people who look up to those celebrities even spending $600 on blood work with this clown. That would be annoying, and so there just really isn't much value in anything the guy is selling, except for the hormone therapy.
Speaker 1:And if you're going to go down that route I haven't, but it's totally fine in certain contexts but why not just do it with, like, honest and transparent people? There's way better people you could go to for TRT, in my estimation, than this guy and, frankly, anybody promoting businesses the way he does. His clients all have the money. So I want to be honest. I really don't care about his air quote victims. They're fine. They've just kind of allowed this guy to become a little bigger than he should be. But let's be honest.
Speaker 1:Celebrities really don't have a good track record with finding investments, ideas or products. It can sound like I'm this unfamous person just trying to cope with my non-fame by saying but FTX, nfts, bernie Madoff, do you really want me to keep going? Celebrities actually have really, really bad track records with finding good investments, good ideas and fitness programs. I actually don't think that it's because they're not dumb. They're not bad.
Speaker 1:The biggest problem with being a celebrity and getting onto that level is that you're actually surrounded by sycophants and opportunists and little by little, the people that were with you on the way up their voices get heard less and less. And that famous, successful person as their fame and success rises, they get surrounded by more and more people who want to siphon that from them. And then again there's so many actors that will never make it on the screen. These are the people that float around, these people, these are their trainers, their money managers, etc. But they have no way to get what they need other than their golden goose. So, no, I do think that actually celebrities are actually victims in this. In a sense, I only don't care because they can afford that victimhood. But no, actually I probably should be more compassionate to them, because what these people like Gary Brekka, um, bernie Madoff, uh, sam, whatever these people are exploiting other people's insecurities for their own agendas. Obviously, I went over a bunch of different. We got a finance guy, we got a health guy, um. But to me, these, these really are the same animal that they like to play on other people's insecurities to push their own agenda. And so, yeah, I should probably have a little bit of sympathy for celebrities, because they really are constantly surrounded by charlatans and sycophants. Stay grounded when your social context kind of starts to narrow and everything that's getting thrown at you is almost all people who who want something to either siphon some cash or some clout out of you. I don't actually know how how one deals with that, but anyway, guys.
Speaker 1:Last one, this was actually kind of tease the opposite. This article I actually really liked the framing on kind of tease the opposite. There's an article I actually really liked the framing on. So, of all places, barron's finally got it. I've been reading articles for years about weightlifting versus cardio what's the best? And I just loved this headline. It was weightlifting and aerobic exercise are good for you. Doing both is far better. So anyway, you guys have heard me complain about this in the past. So what I love, what this headline did, is they bucked the dominant style of American headline writing. You don't see a lot of this in American headlines. They failed to create a self-referential binary dichotomy, so usually it would be like fuck, marry or kill one of these, or pit two of these things against each other. What's better, weights or cardio, et cetera. That's how that headline almost always gets written.
Speaker 1:Reminds me of a talk by one of my favorite trainers, one of my mentors I've never met. Dan John on YouTube has a talk that I'm not going to summarize because you go watch it yourself. Intended audience is really trainers like myself, but it's called Don't Be Binary. He introduces a few topics in there. You've got the Eisenhower box, which is important, not important, urgent or not urgent. We could also go to the either or both, and neither. You got four options there. But again, I said I wasn't going to do the whole talk. Check that out. It's a fun way and I actually think too, particularly if you are a coach or a trainer, I'm really not doing a political thing in this binary thing.
Speaker 1:Binaries are just going to make you worse at your job. You're not going to ask the right questions. You're going to consistently produce worse results. Thinking in that way. That's what I actually think Dan Johns talk about. Don't be binary. You'll get some real concrete takeaways about how you can think through the problems that you're going to come through training real people a little bit cleaner and avoid those binary dichotomies which, for as a trainer, you're going to find that that's a dead end. You'll get stuck if you go down those holes.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so I loved again the framing of this Barron's article.
Speaker 1:Yeah, weightlifting and aerobic exercise are good for you. Doing both is better. That's true. Best headline as I've ever seen on it. They also went on later to cite that, particularly as you get older, you should blend strength and endurance training for the biggest gains in longevity and functional health. Also, true Boy, they just nailed it. Love this one too. It doesn't particularly matter which aerobic exercise you pick, as long as you do it regularly. So obviously one Barron's is paid, so they're not going to get a bunch of clicks on that anyway.
Speaker 1:But an article like that is never going to perform well on the algorithm. They should have created an us versus them. You need to create an in-group, you need to have a call to action and I'm sure you marketing and writing people. You know this better than I do and, as you can tell listening to my podcast, I'm literally one of the worst people at this in America. So, yeah, if I was good at all that stuff, no-transcript, but no, just in general what I think, and I hate that I have to finish this on a binary myself.
Speaker 1:But I do kind of feel like you can either have the big picture or you can have your binary dichotomies, and I wish I could express that in a non-binary dichotomy some way. I'm not even trying to make a pun, but that really is the way I see it. You can either see the big picture, see what's in the gaps, see the complexity, see the nuance and subtlety that is every individual's situation, or you can be binary, constantly not get things, be outraged when you're learning about stuff. I know the latter is more popular, but I do think that by not being binary, seeing the big picture, that not in any highfalutin far out their way, like in a real pragmatic sense, like you can just solve the problems that come your way more effectively, be less confused and just not get caught in loops so often. But anyway, that's at least been my experience. So that's why you guys hear me talking about this so much. But anyway, guys, that's it least been my experience, so that's why you guys hear me talking about this so much.
Speaker 1:But anyway, guys, that's it. That's all I got for you this week. I'm still having a great time putting all this stuff together. So if you can make sure to share this with some people and then don't be shy, get at me, tell me what I should be looking at, if there's anything that I'm missing. I literally sit in my office and talk to myself for almost an hour. It's not lost on me. I don't want to be up here monologuing to you guys. So yeah, if there's anything that you guys want me to put my eye on, be sure to let me know. I want to make sure that I am answering the questions that are also important to you guys too. But anyway, guys with that, remember, mind and muscle are inseparably intertwined. There are no gains without brains. Keep lifting and learning and I'll do the same.
