Optimizing your sleep quality is one of the best things you can do to improve your fitness results, and life in general.

Unfortunately a lot of the talk about sleep out there is focused on the detrimental effects of sleep loss, and little attention is being put on actually improving your sleep with smart strategies.

In this interview with Dr. Greg Potter, you're going to get nothing but useful and practical tips on improving the quality of your slepe through actional steps that you can start taking right now.

Greg is a PhD and a researcher investigating sleep and chronobiology.

Greg can be found at:

https://www.instagram.com/gdmpotter/

https://twitter.com/gdmpotter

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Greg_Potter4

1:00 - Practical advice on sleep vs fearmongering about sleep-loss

2:55 - Poor communication about sleep

4:26 - Why do people struggle with sleep to begin with?

8:30 - Genetic differences between people's sleep abilities

9:43 - What constitutes 'good sleep'

13:45 - Greg gives a HUGE overview of strategies for better sleep

25:16 - Blue-light blocking glasses and light exposure in general

28:34 - How to properly 'dose' daylight for circadian rhythm optimization

38:01 - Caffeine's half-life and quorter-life and how it works

40:00 - Morning vs afternoon exercise for better sleep

47:44 - Food intake and how to time it for better sleep

57:13 - Sleep-time restriction for better sleep and other cognitive therapies for improving sleep

1:04:14 - Potential future topics if we do a part II with Greg

1:05:00 - Where can we find Greg and more good sleep resources

Interested in taking your fitness to the next level? Book a free call with me here:

https://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com/

The SSD Facebook community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment

Resources mentioned:

AASM sleep facilities for sleep disorders are recommended

National Sleep Foundation

Sleep EO

Sleep Junkies podcast

Every man and his dog by Matthew Walker

Internal Time by Till Ronneberg

This is part 6 of the 'Volume Month', a series of interviews where I ask some of the top evidence based fitness professionals about the topic of training volume.

This week I have coach, bodybuilder and powerlifter Jacob Schepis come on to talk about how we can use higher volume training blocks to accelerate growth in 1-2 muscle groups at a time - also known as specialization cycles.

Besides this, we have also touched on the recent research showing benefits from super high volumes of training.

0:45 - the recent debates about training volume

5:15 - Is volume the pr

imary driver of hypertrophy?

10:00 - Progressive overload as a driver of hypertrophy

17:50 - Some further talk about strength gains and muscle gains

23:18 - Specialization cycles with high volumes

32:50 - Lower volume for 'gifted' muscle groups?

41:39 - New volume recommendations after the high volume studies?

45:29 - How much volume do you (Jacob) do?

51:22 - Where can we find your work? What new projects do you have?

Our blog and courses:

https://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com/

The SSD Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment/

Jacob's resources:

https://www.instagram.com/jacobschepis_jps/

Website: https://www.jpshealthandfitness.com.au

In today's episode, I'm chatting with fellow podcaster, Dave Maconi, host of the podcast and YouTube channel called Brains and Gains. Hope you enjoy it!

0:40 - How did you get into fitness?

2:00 - Chatting briefly about the 'Charity Podcast' idea

3:40 - Will you make fitness your primary career instead of dentistry?

6:10 - Talking about topics that currently excite us in fitness right now

10:00 - Serving different audiences in the fitness industry

13:15 - Getting into fitness to fill a void in our lives

17:05 - Talking about being genetically gifted vs non-gifted

21:30 - Staying motivated when you made most of your gains

24:30 - Finding other hobbies besides just fitness - why its important

31:15 - Talking about sustainable body-fat percentages and dieting

37:18 - Talking about training volume - of course

41:45 - Important insights during podcasting and making interviews

49:03 -Where can we find you?

Our blog and courses:

https://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com/

Dave's channel and podcast:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW-PI9YMJ6SXPiqXy2FYfLg

Surprise surprise, the volume month gets extended a little bit!

This week, Brian Minor, comes on to talk about progressive overload, training volume and how these factors influence muscle growth.

Brian is a natural bodybuilder, writer, and overall, super knowledgeable fitness professional who is always a pleasure to listen to about these topics.

Time-Stamps:

2:10 - Is volume or progressive overload causing muscle growth?

5:04 - Further clarifying how muscle growth is stimulated

8:15 - Is training 1 rep shy of failure more effective than training 3-4 reps away from failure?

12:59 - The real role of progressive overload - and how its misunderstood by many

18:02 - Can you gain muscle by lifting the same load for the same reps as you did the last session?

23:32 - Is getting as strong as possible the best way to get as big as possible?

27:20 - Is it ok if your strength gains slow down on a high volume routine?

34:04 - Central fatigue -does it really exist?

42:13 - Junk volume - does it really exist?

46:56 - Mike Israetel's volume progression and how optimal it is

55:45 - How much volume do you do and how much did you have to increase it over time?

1:02:22 - Where can we find your work?

Our blog and courses:

https://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com/

The SSD Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment/

Brian's resources:

INsta: https://www.instagram.com/bdminor/

Website: http://myojournal.com/

We came to our fourth (and probably last) episode of our Volume Month. After interviewing 3 amazing guest, one of my favourite came last! In this one, Dr. Eric Helms is sharing the theoretical as well as practical side of increasing training volume to make better gains. You'll learn why you should probably not get carried away with increasing the number of sets in your program too quickly, and why if you're progressing as an intermediate or advanced lifter, you're probably doing things right, and it's needless to worry about whether you could be progressing even faster.

Time-Stamps:

1:10 - Why is training volume important?

3:38 - Is progressive overload or volume driving growth?

6:29 - What's a good starting volume for an intermediate lifter?

12:23 - Discussing the Schoenfeld high volume study (long back and forth)

22:30 - How can we implement these high volume studies in real life?

27:05 - How do we know if we could/should increase our training volume?

30:33 - How much faster will you progress on higher volumes?

34:50 - How much volume does Eric do?

38:05 - How many sets per session do you do?

40:14 - Where can we find your work?

nsta: @ssdabel

Our blog and courses:

https://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com

The SSD Community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment

Podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/abelcsabai

Previous episodes of the volume month:

Dr. James Steele:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYpAlDtcpLI

Mike Israetel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifoX_HJeGA4

Menno Henselmans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy58UUYomAg

In the 3d episode of our Volume Month edition, Dr. James Steele comes on the podcast to talk about training volume, and how a lot of people might be overlooking factors such as training effort when trying optimize their workouts.

After Menno Henselmans and Mike Israetel, I thought I'd bring on someone who represents a different line of thinking about the subject of training volume, and can offer a new perspective on this.

Dr. Steele is an associate professor and researcher in the field of exercise science, and is a principle investigator for the not-for-profit organization UKActive.

Hope you enjoy the episode!

Time-Stamps:

1:27 - What are the main drivers of muscle growth?

5:55 - How important is volume for muscle growth?

10:13 - How to best quantify volume

14:43 - The more volume the better?

21:50 - Effort and its role in muscle growth (volume or effort?)

24:10 - Is HIT training enough to get someone to their genetic potential?

27:25 - Volume and rate of muscle growth

30:10 - Training to failure - how important it is?

38:25 - What's a good starting point for someone with a training protocol?

42:30 - When is it warranted to reduce training volume?

46:10 - Super slow training

53:05 - Conclusions + Where can we found your work?

insta: @ssdabel

Our blog and courses:

www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com

The SSD Community:

www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment

Podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/abelcsabai

Dr. Steele can be found at:

UK Active Research Institute

https://www.ukactive.com/research-institute/

In the second episode of the Volume Month, Dr. Mike Israetel is sharing his views on optimizing training volume.

He is a proponent of progressing from the least volume you can progress on to the most, and repeating this process. I will try to challenge him on this to the best of my abilities, let's see if I succeed!

1:35 - How important is volume compared to progressive overload, intensity, failure proximity, etc?

7:25 - Martin Berkhan, Jeff Alberts, and people who grow so well on low training volumes

14:00 - Going from low to high volumes (why is it beneficial if its beneficial)

14:50 - Why add weight but not add sets?

24:30 - I'm trying to challenge Mike on the volume landmarks

28:26 - I'm trying to challenge him a bit more here

35:40 - Can you add sets if you're recovery is not 100% on point?

41:08 - How much more gains will you make if you do the most volume possible vs the minimum effective dose?

50:20 - Schoenfeld's 45 sets a week study

59:05 - Mike's new volume landmarks?!

59:45 - How much volume does Mike do?

1:06:45 - Where can we find out more about you?

Our blog and courses:

www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com

The SSD Community:

www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment

Podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/abelcsabai

insta: @ssdabel

Mike's resources:

https://renaissanceperiodization.com/

Insta: @rpdmike

This is part 1 of the upcoming 'Volume Month' - the world top evidence based experts will tell you - on this YouTube Channel - how to optimize your training volume.

In the first part of this, Menno Henselmans will cover his latest research and findings on this.

Time-Stamps:

0:50 - How important is training volume compared to the other factors in training?

02:09 - How to best quantify training volume?

06:45 - What's the optimal training volume? - what the research says

10:00 - What are the factors that determine if you respond well to high volume training?

14:00 - How much does lifestyle and recovery ability influence your volume tolerance?

20:30 - Do people make better on low volume routines (sometimes)?

22:57 - When should we INCREASE volume?

26:33 - The minimum effective dose vs maximum amount of volume

29:54 - The difference between doing the most we can and the minimum effective dose

35:20 - Schoenfeld's 45 set-study

39:04 - Martin Berkhan, and people who swear by very low volume programs

41:09 - What volume should we choose for ourselves?

42:30 - How should we modify our volume? (what to look for)

43:40 - How much volume does Mennno do?

48:45 - Volume per session - what's too little, whats too much? (training frequency talk)

51:00 - Counting effective reps instead of sets

56:20 - Where can we find you?

Our blog and courses:

www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com

The SSD Community:

www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment

Podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/abelcsabai

insta:@ssdabel

Menno's resources:

www.mennohenselmans.com

I recently completed the most productive 5 months of my fitness journey. First I bulked hard, at least harder than ever before, and then I cut aggressively. And the results were pretty good! And in this video I’d like to tell you about how I did what I did.

The first stage of this mini-cut was a bulk - but that will be covered later.

In this particular episode, I will cover how my most recent mini-cut went.

An article I wrote about this with more details can be found here:

https://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com/blog/abelsminicut

Marty Kendall has been investigating the topic of optimizing nutrition and body-composition through manipulatnig the nutrient density of your diet.

In this interview we'll cover the topic of how you can select foods to make yourself eat the right amount of calories as well as eat healthfully without having to meticulously count and track your food.

Time-Stamps:

0:30 - Marty's background2

2:07 - Marty's personal struggles and how his wife managed her diabetes through nutritional strategies

5:00 - Discussion about low carb and keto diets

6:20 - Satiety and nutrient density - defining the terms

12:35 - Talking about the satiety index spectrum

15:30 - Carbs and fats and how they influence satiety

19:18 - Mixing carbs and fats

22:13 - How our ancestral instincts influence us and prompt us to overeat

26:40 - How nutrient density impacts satiety

31:07 - Protein and satiety and protein leverage theory

33:00 - Some talk on the carnivore diet

36:30 - Best foods to select to optimize nutrient density and satiety

41:00 - Marty's nutrient density challenge

47:20 - Where can we found you?

Our blog and courses:

http://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com/

The SSD Facebook community:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment

Marty's resources:

https://www.facebook.com/optimisingnutrition/

https://optimisingnutrition.com/

https://nutrientoptimiser.com/