This week’s guest is Dr. Mike T Nelson, exercise physiologist, trainer, speaker and all around expert on the human body. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to Mike on a variety of topics related to human performance and gait in the past, and have also gotten a lot out of the many podcasts where he has talked about nutrition and specifically, metabolic flexibility, or the balance between the body’s ability to use fats or carbohydrates for fuel.

The majority of the guests I have on the podcast are coaches in the speed and power realm, but I strongly believe that to be a great coach (not just a good coach), you must be familiar with all facets of performance, such as nutrition, basic physiology, recovery and psychology. If we spend all our effort splitting hairs over exercise and periodization concepts, we miss out on a vast world of global performance enhancers.

Some common nutrition questions for athletes that come up frequently are things like:

• How much protein should I be having?

• What should my breakfast be like for muscle growth?

• How do I recover faster from my workouts?

In many cases, athletes end up making nutrition decisions on their own based on what their friends are doing, or the ad they saw on the internet, which is unfortunate when a little education on the part of their coaches could really make a big difference in recovery and performance.

It is for this reason that I’m really excited to have Mike T Nelson on the show today. We’ll be talking on a variety of nutrition and physiological concepts that have application to any coach or athlete. Mike also does a great job breaking it down to a point where we can easily understand and apply the information.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.