My dad is 64 has back problems and recently torn a tendon in his shoulder. I bought BPC 157 Acetate 10mg and TB500 4 fragment 17-23 10mg from Limitless. I'm completely new when it comes to peptide's. What would you add to this stack? i read somewhere that collagen is wise?
The most important thing would be a high protein diet (1 to 1.5g/lb bw) and some Type 1 & 3 collagen supplementation. If you're going to ramp up repair signaling, you need to increase the building blocks as well.
Yes, the 280 to 320 nm wavelength light from the sperti effectively increases MSH. Sperti / FDA recommends 5 mins every other day, but I do 5 mins daily. Not recommending that, I just personally feel better on that protocol.
Question is regarding soreness on rest days and, other than being evidence you worked those muscles, whether it's an indication of deficiencies in daily water and/or nutrient requirements.
I'm brand new to tracking macros and (seriously) working out. Right now, just trying to hit target macros and haven't gotten into micronutrients/electrolytes/etc. yet. Only supplement I'm taking right now is 5mg Creatine daily that I started about a week ago.
I'm only about 2 weeks in, bad sore at first obviously, but seemed to have adjusted well and generally feel pretty good on rest days now.
I added a few new exercises to a particular muscle group in the last workout and now on a two day rest period. I noticed today (second rest day) that I felt great in the morning but as the day went on, I could feel tightness and soreness creeping into the muscles/joints that I added exercises for. This is the first time I've noticed it getting sore as it was happening.
I know I added exercises to this group of muscles, so I expected to be sore in new places, but it was odd to me at first that I wasn't sore there, and now ever weirder that I could feel it starting to get sore.
All of that to say, is there anything I can take away from this, like, potentially need more hydration, etc., or are there too many unknown variables since this is all brand new for me? Or, is my noticing maybe just normal since I'm paying a lot more attention to my body now?
Sorry if all of that is just a jumbled mess of words! :) Appreciate everything you do!!
Excellent question, brother! The delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) you are experiencing is usually just a sign of training harder than usual / doing new exercises that stimulate different muscle fibers.
At the same time, it can absolutely indicate opportunities to optimize hydration and nutrients to support workout recovery and muscle repair. Here are a few key takeaways:
1. DOMS even with rest days shows the muscles worked intensely enough to incur some microdamage and inflammatory response. This is normal, but optimizing inputs can help resolve it faster.
2. Hydration is important - if you're going with the 2.5g RDA of sodium, you should be aiming for a gallon to 5 liters a day. If you're sweating a lot, you'll need even more. Hydration aids delivery of nutrients for repair and waste removal.
3. Electrolytes get depleted with intense training - sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium. Salting your food/water, potassium rich carbs like potatoes, and supplements like magnesium glycinate or electrolyte blends should be part of your protocol. I go for the RDA of potassium + 10mg per gram of carb. Then I aim for sodium at half of that for a 2:1 K to Na ratio. I go for the 1 gram RDA of calcium and match it with magnesium for a 1:1 to 1:2 Cal to Mag ratio. For water I aim for around 1 liter for every 500mg of sodium.
4. Protein intake to support muscle repair may be inadequate - 1 gram to 1.5 grams (ideal) per pound of body weight daily via animal proteins. You shouldn't have more than 20% of your protein come from shakes, but if you're in a pinch you can break this rule every now and then.
5. You may have a suboptimal omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acid ratio, which will lead to excess inflammation. If you aren't eating fish daily, 1.5 to 2 grams of EPA from cod liver oil will do wonders for inflammation and has a whole host of other health benefits.
6. Are you taking 5 grams of creatine monohydrate daily? If not, you should consider it. You'll recover faster, perform better, and you'll gain a quick 5 lbs of water in your muscles.
Recommendations on brand, dose, how best to deploy sodium butyrate? If you are willing to share your experience, success with it, would be appreciated. Thank you.
It's not cheap, but the best form/brand of sodium butyrate is tributerin. https://amzn.to/3U8z6sy
Truly a miracle supp though. Had some autoimmune stuff going on (dry flaky scalp, joint pain, brain fog) and it cleared it up. Acid reflux/bloat resolved. Poops are nice solid no-wipers haha. Feel really great mentally and physically. I take 300mg in the morning and night.
BodyBio also has good sodium butyrate. I take 3.6 grams of that a day split am/pm as well. Hope this helps!
Read your diet post (previous post) and as someone who’s been very keto-focused I was wondering if you could share what you eat to hit the macros you mentioned in the post.
It’s just v hard for me to come up w/ carb-focused meals since i’ve been heavily fata focused for such a long time now
The protein is mostly chicken, egg whites, and greek yogurt. I also throw in some ground turkey, sirloin or lean ground beef, and tuna/cod/tilapia. For carbs its basically all potatoes and rice cooked in bone broth. NOW is a good supplement in general and i use their l carn
I’m giving up injected TRT and going to do some enclomiphene research. Do you have any advice for weaning off of the cypionate and onto the enclomiphene? Also, I noticed one of the online telehealth companies packages their enclomiphene with pregnanalone. Is that a legitimate combination?
IDK, I'd probably skip shots for a week and then hop on the enclom at 6.25 mg a day, see how I feel, bump up to 12.5. a week later and get bloods. e2 might be high at that point. enclom is a lot trickier to manage e2 on so I'd only do it under doc supervision. I don't see a point in putting enclom with pregnenolone ina. pill together since you may or may not need it based on bloodwork. Seems more gimmicky than anything
I don't like vitamin D supps, especially at that high of a dose. I think it causes calcium deposits in your arteries and other nasty places. Id replace with cod liver oil and sunlight (sperti if no sun out)
Not a fan at all. Fan of tracking your diet with cronometer and getting it from real food as the forms of vitamins in pills are inferior, they dont absorb properly and they arent in the same ratios as food. A b complex is good and often times u might need a vitamin e or vit a supplement (cod liver oil), but no need fod a multi if eating properly.
I'd do berberine in the am as it inhibits leptin. By 500mg glycinate do you mean 500mg of magnesium from mag glycinate? Thats good. Seems like total mg a day is at a gram, might want more if megadosing vit d tho
I have to take the Vitamin D supp since I do not get to see the sun most of the days as I am working inside all day, is there a dose you recommend? I recently added in a the Infi B complex from one of your posts. For Berbeine I read in one of your recent posts that is should be taken PM? As for the magnesium glycinate, I am not sure, on the label it reads Magnesium (as magnesium Glycinate) 420mg.
I'm a skinny fat following your advice to reduce my body fat as much as possible before looking to gain lean mass (working out pretty well so far). You previously mentioned skinny fats should hit single digit BF first to restore insulin sensitivity. What's a good A1C level as a proxy for insulin sensitivity that may signal my insulin sensitivity has been restored? I'm currently around 16% BF and A1C is 4.9%.
Also, once I start looking to gain lean mass after reducing my body fat, how much of a daily caloric surplus would you recommend to maximize muscle gains but minimize fat? Planning on continuing to taking 1g l-carnitine 4-6x a day + berberine even once I'm in this phase. Thanks so much!
4.9% is actually pretty good! I'm happy when I'm 4.7/4.8
You still wanna get to 8-10% bf so you have room to put on fat during your bulk!
Sounds like your committed, supps and diet are dialed in, you're putting in the work, and know that you still have work to do. Let me know how it turns out! You're like 12-16 weeks out from being done with the cut if you work hard and don't slip
Just know it could take up to a yr in the most severe cases, but most dudes are good within 3-4 months.
Mindset? You're done with that. For life. No slip ups. Ever. Sex only.
Supplements? Supplemental UVB is the number 1 thing when it comes to repairing the dopaminergic arousal pathways. (if you aren't getting sufficient sunlight, which you probably aren't since it's winter)
Alpha Melanocyte Stimulating hormone is heavily involved in regulating sexual arousal and erections. So much so, that the best libido / ED med ever created (PT-141) is a derivative of aMSH.
BTW- high intensity cardio is more neurotrophic than any nootropic you can take, so blasting cardio 5-7x a week will get you feeling good and probably cut the healing time by 50-75%
If you have those things dialed in (and assuming hormones are balanced) this supp stack might give you an extra 10% edge (yes, lifestyle is THAT much more important than taking pills)
- Uridine
- Polygala
- Citrulline
- Icariin
- Tribugen
- Gingko
- Rhodiola
In that stack we have stuff to upregulate dopamine receptors, increase BDNF, increase dopamine, increase bloodflow to brain and eggplant, and more
Any experience or opinion on 9-MBC? Supposed to upregulate dopamine sensitivity, restoring stimulant sensitivity etc. Using it now at 15mg sublingual in the morning.
What can someone do to restore gallbladder and kidney function? I know some people who recommend the gallbladder cleanse, but I can’t wrap my mind around it. I know liver can regenerate, but am less certain about what type of damage accumulates to the kidneys.
What are your thoughts on beginner training kickboxing/muay thai and getting lean shredded im currently 200lbs 30% body fat and 6’3 tall
I did a dexa scan and my daily calorie intake with me being active 4-5x/week is 2520 calories with 1000 calorie defecit if i want to get to 27% body by feb 16th im looking into MK677 and cardarine for supplement looking forward to reply thanks for the work you been doing man!
I try to stick to maintenance for 2 to 4 weeks so I can accurately gauge what my maintenance really is. Since I only want a 300 cal surplus on my bulk, it's important to know my maintenance calories with certainty.
My dad is 64 has back problems and recently torn a tendon in his shoulder. I bought BPC 157 Acetate 10mg and TB500 4 fragment 17-23 10mg from Limitless. I'm completely new when it comes to peptide's. What would you add to this stack? i read somewhere that collagen is wise?
Long term stashing powdered bpc-157, -20 C ?
The most important thing would be a high protein diet (1 to 1.5g/lb bw) and some Type 1 & 3 collagen supplementation. If you're going to ramp up repair signaling, you need to increase the building blocks as well.
Can you naturally increase HGH hormone in low twenties to grow taller? How would you recommend?
Lol nah it's too late at that point. Maybe half an inch if you take MK677
What’s your perspective on using insulin as an anabolic?
Alone? Not really anabolic as you already secrete insulin from your pancreas. With HGH & AAS it takes gains to the next level.
Does the sperti light increase MSH and what's your protocol in terms of daily use?
Yes, the 280 to 320 nm wavelength light from the sperti effectively increases MSH. Sperti / FDA recommends 5 mins every other day, but I do 5 mins daily. Not recommending that, I just personally feel better on that protocol.
Question is regarding soreness on rest days and, other than being evidence you worked those muscles, whether it's an indication of deficiencies in daily water and/or nutrient requirements.
I'm brand new to tracking macros and (seriously) working out. Right now, just trying to hit target macros and haven't gotten into micronutrients/electrolytes/etc. yet. Only supplement I'm taking right now is 5mg Creatine daily that I started about a week ago.
I'm only about 2 weeks in, bad sore at first obviously, but seemed to have adjusted well and generally feel pretty good on rest days now.
I added a few new exercises to a particular muscle group in the last workout and now on a two day rest period. I noticed today (second rest day) that I felt great in the morning but as the day went on, I could feel tightness and soreness creeping into the muscles/joints that I added exercises for. This is the first time I've noticed it getting sore as it was happening.
I know I added exercises to this group of muscles, so I expected to be sore in new places, but it was odd to me at first that I wasn't sore there, and now ever weirder that I could feel it starting to get sore.
All of that to say, is there anything I can take away from this, like, potentially need more hydration, etc., or are there too many unknown variables since this is all brand new for me? Or, is my noticing maybe just normal since I'm paying a lot more attention to my body now?
Sorry if all of that is just a jumbled mess of words! :) Appreciate everything you do!!
Excellent question, brother! The delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) you are experiencing is usually just a sign of training harder than usual / doing new exercises that stimulate different muscle fibers.
At the same time, it can absolutely indicate opportunities to optimize hydration and nutrients to support workout recovery and muscle repair. Here are a few key takeaways:
1. DOMS even with rest days shows the muscles worked intensely enough to incur some microdamage and inflammatory response. This is normal, but optimizing inputs can help resolve it faster.
2. Hydration is important - if you're going with the 2.5g RDA of sodium, you should be aiming for a gallon to 5 liters a day. If you're sweating a lot, you'll need even more. Hydration aids delivery of nutrients for repair and waste removal.
3. Electrolytes get depleted with intense training - sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium. Salting your food/water, potassium rich carbs like potatoes, and supplements like magnesium glycinate or electrolyte blends should be part of your protocol. I go for the RDA of potassium + 10mg per gram of carb. Then I aim for sodium at half of that for a 2:1 K to Na ratio. I go for the 1 gram RDA of calcium and match it with magnesium for a 1:1 to 1:2 Cal to Mag ratio. For water I aim for around 1 liter for every 500mg of sodium.
4. Protein intake to support muscle repair may be inadequate - 1 gram to 1.5 grams (ideal) per pound of body weight daily via animal proteins. You shouldn't have more than 20% of your protein come from shakes, but if you're in a pinch you can break this rule every now and then.
5. You may have a suboptimal omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acid ratio, which will lead to excess inflammation. If you aren't eating fish daily, 1.5 to 2 grams of EPA from cod liver oil will do wonders for inflammation and has a whole host of other health benefits.
6. Are you taking 5 grams of creatine monohydrate daily? If not, you should consider it. You'll recover faster, perform better, and you'll gain a quick 5 lbs of water in your muscles.
Thank you so much, Bio! Great info and I really appreciate the thoroughness. Your content has been super helpful for me.
Recommendations on brand, dose, how best to deploy sodium butyrate? If you are willing to share your experience, success with it, would be appreciated. Thank you.
It's not cheap, but the best form/brand of sodium butyrate is tributerin. https://amzn.to/3U8z6sy
Truly a miracle supp though. Had some autoimmune stuff going on (dry flaky scalp, joint pain, brain fog) and it cleared it up. Acid reflux/bloat resolved. Poops are nice solid no-wipers haha. Feel really great mentally and physically. I take 300mg in the morning and night.
BodyBio also has good sodium butyrate. I take 3.6 grams of that a day split am/pm as well. Hope this helps!
What is your basic Natty male hormone optimization protocol?
-Morning sun exposure or supplemental UVB
-Lift heavy weights 4+ times weekly
-7 to 8 hours of quality sleep
-10 to 15% body fat (have good abs)
-500mg dietary cholesterol daily
-60+ grams of dietary fats per day (avoid seed oils & trans fats)
-Hit RDAs for all vitamins & minerals (extra zinc & magnesium help)
-Daily cold exposure or icing 🥜s
-No masturbation/porn (sex is good)
-Engage in competitive activities
-Low-stress lifestyle or strong mindset
Read your diet post (previous post) and as someone who’s been very keto-focused I was wondering if you could share what you eat to hit the macros you mentioned in the post.
It’s just v hard for me to come up w/ carb-focused meals since i’ve been heavily fata focused for such a long time now
p.s. What brand of L-Carnitine do you get?
The protein is mostly chicken, egg whites, and greek yogurt. I also throw in some ground turkey, sirloin or lean ground beef, and tuna/cod/tilapia. For carbs its basically all potatoes and rice cooked in bone broth. NOW is a good supplement in general and i use their l carn
I’m giving up injected TRT and going to do some enclomiphene research. Do you have any advice for weaning off of the cypionate and onto the enclomiphene? Also, I noticed one of the online telehealth companies packages their enclomiphene with pregnanalone. Is that a legitimate combination?
IDK, I'd probably skip shots for a week and then hop on the enclom at 6.25 mg a day, see how I feel, bump up to 12.5. a week later and get bloods. e2 might be high at that point. enclom is a lot trickier to manage e2 on so I'd only do it under doc supervision. I don't see a point in putting enclom with pregnenolone ina. pill together since you may or may not need it based on bloodwork. Seems more gimmicky than anything
Can you give feedback on my supplement stack below? I work a 9-5 indoors so I do not get a lot of sun, I try to hit the gym 4-5 days a week.
Morning
1. Magnesium Malate - 420mg
2. D3/k2 - 5000 IU
3. Throne Multivitamin
4. Tongkat Ali 400mg
5. Shilajit - 250mg
6. Krill oil 1g
Before Gym
1. Creatine 5g
2. Ubiquinol 300mg
3. Gorilla Mode AR - 3000mg
4. Cistanche - 200mg
5. Shilajit - 250mg
Before sleep
1. Krill Oil 1g
2. Berberine 1200mg
3. KSM 66 - 600mg
4. Glycinate - 500mg
I don't like vitamin D supps, especially at that high of a dose. I think it causes calcium deposits in your arteries and other nasty places. Id replace with cod liver oil and sunlight (sperti if no sun out)
Not a fan at all. Fan of tracking your diet with cronometer and getting it from real food as the forms of vitamins in pills are inferior, they dont absorb properly and they arent in the same ratios as food. A b complex is good and often times u might need a vitamin e or vit a supplement (cod liver oil), but no need fod a multi if eating properly.
I'd do berberine in the am as it inhibits leptin. By 500mg glycinate do you mean 500mg of magnesium from mag glycinate? Thats good. Seems like total mg a day is at a gram, might want more if megadosing vit d tho
Doesn’t vitamin K balance out D and remove calcium from arteries?
I have to take the Vitamin D supp since I do not get to see the sun most of the days as I am working inside all day, is there a dose you recommend? I recently added in a the Infi B complex from one of your posts. For Berbeine I read in one of your recent posts that is should be taken PM? As for the magnesium glycinate, I am not sure, on the label it reads Magnesium (as magnesium Glycinate) 420mg.
I'm a skinny fat following your advice to reduce my body fat as much as possible before looking to gain lean mass (working out pretty well so far). You previously mentioned skinny fats should hit single digit BF first to restore insulin sensitivity. What's a good A1C level as a proxy for insulin sensitivity that may signal my insulin sensitivity has been restored? I'm currently around 16% BF and A1C is 4.9%.
Also, once I start looking to gain lean mass after reducing my body fat, how much of a daily caloric surplus would you recommend to maximize muscle gains but minimize fat? Planning on continuing to taking 1g l-carnitine 4-6x a day + berberine even once I'm in this phase. Thanks so much!
4.9% is actually pretty good! I'm happy when I'm 4.7/4.8
You still wanna get to 8-10% bf so you have room to put on fat during your bulk!
Sounds like your committed, supps and diet are dialed in, you're putting in the work, and know that you still have work to do. Let me know how it turns out! You're like 12-16 weeks out from being done with the cut if you work hard and don't slip
Of course all of the above assumes I’m hitting the gym hard 5-6 days per week following your PPL program 🙌
Fixing PIED, fried dopamine system due to porn. Resetting arousal. Stronger erections.
What’s the best ways of approaching this in terms of supplements and mindset, and lifestyle?
Assuming testosterone is good, etc I’m talking more on the dopamine system, neurons, transmitters, signaling front
Just know it could take up to a yr in the most severe cases, but most dudes are good within 3-4 months.
Mindset? You're done with that. For life. No slip ups. Ever. Sex only.
Supplements? Supplemental UVB is the number 1 thing when it comes to repairing the dopaminergic arousal pathways. (if you aren't getting sufficient sunlight, which you probably aren't since it's winter)
Alpha Melanocyte Stimulating hormone is heavily involved in regulating sexual arousal and erections. So much so, that the best libido / ED med ever created (PT-141) is a derivative of aMSH.
For supplemental UVB, Sperti is the best choice, but it is pricey. You can build a similar light here https://optimizeyourbiology.com/diy-vitamin-d-sun-lamp
BTW- high intensity cardio is more neurotrophic than any nootropic you can take, so blasting cardio 5-7x a week will get you feeling good and probably cut the healing time by 50-75%
If you have those things dialed in (and assuming hormones are balanced) this supp stack might give you an extra 10% edge (yes, lifestyle is THAT much more important than taking pills)
- Uridine
- Polygala
- Citrulline
- Icariin
- Tribugen
- Gingko
- Rhodiola
In that stack we have stuff to upregulate dopamine receptors, increase BDNF, increase dopamine, increase bloodflow to brain and eggplant, and more
Any experience or opinion on 9-MBC? Supposed to upregulate dopamine sensitivity, restoring stimulant sensitivity etc. Using it now at 15mg sublingual in the morning.
It's very potent. Metabolites could potentially be neurotoxic. Not well studied enough. (this is why I don't talk about it)
It does tend to work well for restoring dopaminergic sensitivity though. Make sure you stay out of the sun while using it.
What can someone do to restore gallbladder and kidney function? I know some people who recommend the gallbladder cleanse, but I can’t wrap my mind around it. I know liver can regenerate, but am less certain about what type of damage accumulates to the kidneys.
Do you have an opinion on the ARMA Colostrum vs other collagens?
What are your thoughts on beginner training kickboxing/muay thai and getting lean shredded im currently 200lbs 30% body fat and 6’3 tall
I did a dexa scan and my daily calorie intake with me being active 4-5x/week is 2520 calories with 1000 calorie defecit if i want to get to 27% body by feb 16th im looking into MK677 and cardarine for supplement looking forward to reply thanks for the work you been doing man!
How do you effectively transition from cut to bulk? Is it best to stay at maintenance cals for a certain period or jump straight in?
I try to stick to maintenance for 2 to 4 weeks so I can accurately gauge what my maintenance really is. Since I only want a 300 cal surplus on my bulk, it's important to know my maintenance calories with certainty.