Ben Greenfield [00:00:00]: In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Life Podcast. The ultimate travel workout routine, microdosing with GLP-1, increasing libido without testosterone replacement therapy, and a whole lot more. Fitness, nutrition, biohacking, longevity, life optimization, spirituality and a whole lot more. Welcome to the Ben Greenfield Life Show. Are you ready to hack your life? Let's do this. Welcome, welcome to today's show, which is apparently brought to you. I know you guys are always asking me what I'm drinking during a show and it widely varies.

Ben Greenfield [00:00:47]: I have zero plan, zero strategy whatsoever. I just go out to the mini fridge in my garage and grab whatever the spirit is hankering me to grab. Today it's OPHORA. OPHORA? OPHORA. Should be OPHORA. OPHORA. Nice glass of water. It says water for wellness.

Ben Greenfield [00:01:05]: Nano-pure restructured hyper oxygenated. I am going to do a podcast though with this company. I'm very curious about how they make nano-pure restructured hyper oxygenated water. So regarding skepticism, I suppose I have been doing reaction videos. I wanted to let you know that if, if you go to my YouTube channel. Yes, this is a shameless plug. I recently did one on the myth of lean protein and why lean protein is not really in my vernacular. I also did one on the trendy new 12-3-30 treadmill workout.

Ben Greenfield [00:01:39]: Walking for 30 minutes at a 3.0 speed, 12% incline. I also did a video on what happens when big food companies buy health food companies. Like how Pepsi just bought Siete for like 1.3 big-a-billion dollars. So anyways, all those are on YouTube. I'll link to them too in the shownotes which are going to be at bengreenfieldlife.com/481 today. And today, man, I've got. Well, I guess I have one newsflash for you, but the rest of everything else is all Q&As. It's all Q&As. You guys wrote in with some fantastic questions and heck, I think I'm just going to start off by replying to your questions and answers.

Ben Greenfield [00:02:22]: My answers. Your questions. Leslie wrote in. Oh and by the way, if you want to write in, just go to bengreenfieldlife.com. Not only is there a handy place to leave a question for the podcast, but my AI clone is on there. So you probably don't even have to leave a question for the podcast. You can just ask my clone. It's in the lower right hand corner. It's been trained on about 10 years of my podcast, books, writings, etc.

Ben Greenfield [00:02:44]: So you can, you can ask my clone. Don't even worry about asking me. Heck, how do you know I'm not a clone right now, recording this podcast? It could be. We're living in that era now. So, microdosing GLP-1. Leslie asks, what do I think about microdosing with GLP-1? Well, I'll tell you an interesting story. I interviewed someone about these Ozempic and GLP-1 agonists and tirzepatide and megapatide and allopana peptide and all the peptides out there. Her name is Dr. Tyna Moore.

Ben Greenfield [00:03:15]: It was a fascinating interview. And being the good little immersive journalist that I am, I actually injected with Ozempic for two weeks leading into the show in increasingly higher dosages to just see what the dose response to the stuff was. Starting off, it controlled appetite shockingly well. Meaning, like I would make myself my beautiful, glorious morning blueberry-coconut water smoothie and then just kind of sit there staring at it, asking why the heck I made myself a smoothie. Because I didn't really want a smoothie or anything at all for that matter in the first place. I made myself a beautiful sous vide for three hours, then smoked, rubbed, and rosemary and thyme, beautiful bison porterhouse steak and sat there, took like one bite, you know, dipped it in a little primal kitchen ketchup and had one bite and then pushed myself away. I actually lost three pounds of muscle during that experiment.

Ben Greenfield [00:04:14]: And as I increased the dosages, began to experience what, I suppose, would be some of the more concerning side effects with higher dosages. I got nauseous, I had gut issues, couldn't stay off the toilet. So works amazingly well, but at the dosages that most doctors are now prescribing, does result in some pretty significant gastrointestinal issues. Nausea, diarrhea. I felt a few times like I was going to vomit. I had a horrible gastric reflux and constipation. And that's what a lot of users who are taking standard dosages of something like Ozempic will report. Some users have even reported experiencing pancreatitis and that that's a life threat, potentially inflammation of the of the pancreas involving severe abdominal pain and nausea and vomiting.

Ben Greenfield [00:05:08]: And so there are other side effects of GLP-1 agonists that have been observed primarily in animal studies, but you know, things like thyroid tumors, cancer. And I'm not saying this to just scare people away from using GLP-1 agonist because like I said, I get very small dosages. In my experience. I was like, holy cow, if I did have appetite control issues or if I did want to lose some weight, which I didn't, I was just doing to see what it felt like. This would be like a total secret weapon. So microdosing though is I think a fascinating concept when it comes to something like Ozempic. Microdosing, as you're no doubt aware, refers to taking less than the standard dose of anything, like a medication or psychedelic or anything like that, to achieve some of the benefits while minimizing the side effects. Right? You get people microdose with and I've done this microdose with psilocybin, right? You take a mega dose of psilocybin, let's say you take two or three or four or more grams and you might be talking to fairies and running through a pastoral field in your underwear. And you take a smaller dose like let's say 0.25 to 0.5 grams and stuff just comes alive a little bit. Better sensory perception, music becomes more colorful, images pop out a little bit better in nature.

Ben Greenfield [00:06:26]: Some people even use it as so-called hunting medicine in some tribes. And I think there's a time and a place for some something like that, like a sub-perceptual dosage. So when we look at microdosing with a pharmaceutical drug like a GLP-1 agonist, this would involve taking a smaller-than-prescribed dose of that medication to achieve some of the benefits while potentially minimizing some of the concerning side effects. So you could get some of the appetite and food craving suppressing benefits of GLP-1s without experiencing the range of side effects that one would commonly experience when one is using the standard dose, which is the dose that has traditionally been used in diabetic management. And indeed when I interviewed Dr. Tyna Moore and that interview might have come out by the time this podcast is released and if so I'll link to it in the show notes. She described how most doctors in her opinion are massively over prescribing, or not over prescribing, but overdosing in terms of the volume dosage of something like Ozempic. And when you consider the fact that Ozempic comes in pre-filled injection pens with specific dosing increments, you could technically just stick with the smallest dose and not increment your way up.

Ben Greenfield [00:07:44]: Or, and many people are doing this, they're talking to their physician about working with a compounding pharmacy in order to get a microdose of something like semaglutide, AKA Ozempic. So with the microdose I'm already being asked by some people who I shared about my experiment with how much I was actually using when I microdosed. So for semaglutide, the actual microdose is 0.5 to 0.125 milligrams. Okay, so this is a very, very small amount, meaning that for 50. Well, let's, let's use a little bit friendlier language here. Micrograms. Okay, so I was taking 50 micrograms and that was the microdosing amount. I used that.

Ben Greenfield [00:08:34]: That worked fantastically with no side effects. 50 micrograms meant that with a full insulin syringe, I was pulling my peptide, my semaglutide, because I was using the peptide version back to the three tick mark. Right? So three one hundredths of what appears on the insulin syringe. Almost a barely perceptible amount if you were looking at it visually. And that's all that it took. I mean, that's how potent this stuff is. So in my case, I think it was a 5 milligram bottle that I arrived and I reconstituted it with 3 milliliters of the sterile water. And so that meant that based on the rough math, and there are peptide calculators all over the place on the Internet, by the way, pull it back to the three tick mark.

Ben Greenfield [00:09:17]: And that was all that it took. And the levels that you would take for a microdose are going to vary from GLP-1 to GLP-1. Like there's another one called tirzepatide. For tirzepatide, it'd be an extra decimal point. It's actually 500 micrograms. And in a case like that, same dosage, mixing ratios, you'd pull the syringe back to the 30 tick mark instead of the 3 tick mark. I'm not a doctor. I don't want any of this to be misconstrued as medical advice, but that was what I did, and those were the effects that I noted.

Ben Greenfield [00:09:51]: So, Dr. Tyna Moore, she's actually pretty fascinating. I would visit her website. She even has a whole article about microdosing with GLP-1s' T-y-n-a. And listen to my podcast interview with her. It was fascinating. And of course, after finishing that episode, I quit using GLP-1s again, because I don't.

Ben Greenfield [00:10:08]: I need to lose weight. Like I need another hole in the head. It's hard for me to keep weight on. Like, I got to eat like 4,000 calories a day to maintain weight. I have a screaming high metabolism. I got a bunch leftover muscle from my bodybuilding days. I walk all over the place and barely drive my car at all. I'm not a candidate for a GLP-1.

Ben Greenfield [00:10:29]: However, she even got in our podcast into the idea that there are a multitude of beneficial side effects that go beyond just weight loss. Things like lipid management. I believe she discussed blood pressure management, there's blood sugar management, et cetera. One other very interesting thing that I noted, by the way, anecdotally, was that I had very low blood sugar. No surprises here because I wasn't eating that much, but I didn't have a lot of the symptoms of low blood sugar, which I thought was interesting. Like normally, if my blood sugar and I wear a continuous blood glucose monitor to track this were at like 50 to 60, I wouldn't be able to sleep. I would just wake up hungry. But when I was using the microdose and obviously as I went along larger doses of Ozempic, I was sleeping all night long just fine with blood sugar between about 50 and 60.

Ben Greenfield [00:11:20]: And I'm not arguing that hypoglycemia to that extent is a good thing, but I did think it was interesting that what would normally cause me a lot of issues from an energetic standpoint wasn't really causing any issues. So anyways, there you have it and there are my brief thoughts on microdosing with GLP-1. Leslie, great question, Jeremy says, Ben, I have followed you for at least the last 10 years. My apologies to you and your family, Jeremy. Hopefully you haven't gotten bored of me in the past decade. I think it's wonderful what you provide for free to help people out. Well, thank you Jeremy, but it's actually not free. Anytime you hear an advertisement on this podcast, I get paid.

Ben Greenfield [00:12:01]: That's how podcasters make their money. So I wish I could say that I'm doing this all out of the goodness of my heart, but I do make a few bucks when I record an episode because people advertise on it. Just being transparent with you. Anyways, so he says, Jeremy says, "My question is what could cause and how could it be fixed a low libido in an otherwise highly athletic and healthy 43-year-old man?" He says he's 6 foot 3, weighs 208 pounds, has a body fat 10.4%. So many, many things can cause low libido. And I would rather than spending time talking about something I've talked about quite a bit on the show before, a thorough addressing of low libido, I'd actually like to come at this from the testosterone standpoint, because Jeremy's question is similar to what I'm asked about a lot by guys, like, my libido is low. Should I get on testosterone, bro? And the answer is not necessarily. So the first thing we should consider here is that Jeremy says his body fat percentage is at 10.4.

Ben Greenfield [00:13:06]: Depending on genetics, that might be a body fat percentage that is just too low all around for adequate testosterone. Adequate amounts of other hormones or neurotransmitters, things like oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine, things that would increase pleasure, and libido. The latest big analysis on healthy body fat percentages for males put them at around the 11 to 22% range. Females were anywhere from 20 to 33% as far as, like, a healthy body fat percentage. So it could be that Jeremy just needs to put on a few pounds. But there are some other things to consider here, particularly when it comes to libido, because libido is influenced by more than just testosterone levels, right? There's a lot. There's psychological state, right? Stress, anxiety, depression. All of that can, of course, influence libido. Relationship dynamics. Your neurotransmitter balance, which I briefly just mentioned. Dopamine, serotonin, those play significant roles.

Ben Greenfield [00:14:12]: So just boosting your testosterone levels, that's really not, contrary to popular belief, going to necessarily address the root cause of reduced libido, right? When somebody tells me they have low libido, I look at this a little bit more from a standpoint of how much stress are you under? Work stress or relationship stress or other lifestyle stress? Do you have anxiety issues? Are you struggling with depression? What does your neurotransmitter balance look like? How does your amino acid look? How does your amino acid intake look? How does your fatty acid intake look? Have you gotten a blood test to see if there are any imbalances in any of these variables? Sometimes there's a negative feedback loop where guys struggle with erectile function. And if there's dysfunction that further dysregulates libido because they've got a little bit of a blockage when it comes to the sexual performance dynamics of libido. And you would come at that from the standpoint of cardiovascular health, blood flow, nitric oxide. Making sure that you're caring for your underparts, not wearing excessively tight underwear. Not spending too much time in hot tubs, you know, even doing things like cold plunges. You know, all of all those things can help when it comes to erectile dysfunction. A lot of the same things you do for cardiovascular health, you do for erectile function. But here's the thing with testosterone. Once your testosterone levels reach a certain threshold, more testosterone doesn't necessarily translate to higher libido or higher sexual performance. As a matter of fact, research has shown that men with normal baseline testosterone levels that fall within reference ranges often experience no significant increase in libido if they were to go to supraphysiological testosterone levels by using TRT or some type of herbal remedy to increase testosterone.

Ben Greenfield [00:16:01]: So the other interesting thing is that testosterone, if it is overdosed or improperly dosed, can even be converted to excess levels of estradiol, which is a form of estrogen. And improper management of that can lead to reduced libido. So, you know, kind of paradoxical, but if you're on testosterone placement therapy, sometimes if it's getting over aromatized into estrogen, it can reduce your libido. So, yes, testosterone is great for workout performance, for recovery. One of the most common things men report when they start onto testosterone replacement therapy is that they can work out day after day after day, and just keep coming back for more because they're recovering that much faster. And that's, that's honestly something, something you got to be careful with. Sometimes you get on TRT and you can get, you can get injured because you're training and able to train and motivated to train so much more. But I would say that before looking into something like testosterone therapy, even though it is something you should test if you have low libido, there are other things that can effectively enhance libido when we look at biohacks or supplements or peptides or lifestyle factors.

Ben Greenfield [00:17:15]: So I'm going to share a few of my more potent tips with you for increasing libido, Jeremy. And while you can, of course apologize to your significant other for having to deal with 10 years of this podcast, hopefully you won't have to apologize to them for this bit of advice. So the first is there's a peptide. I realize that peptides go in and out of legality nowadays. This is one you can still find. There are peptide websites like Peptide Sciences or Limitless Life Peptides. There are physicians who work with compounding pharmacies to prescribe peptides. But the specific peptide that you may want to look into, it's called PT-141.

Ben Greenfield [00:17:50]: That is a peptide that works by stimulating what are called melanocortin receptors in your brain. They target the hypothalamus that plays a role in sexual arousal. So unlike medications like, say, Viagra that would act on your vascular system to increase nitric oxide or decrease the rate at which nitric oxide would be broken down. PT-141 affects your central nervous system, increasing sexual desire in both males and females, by the way, without necessarily influencing testosterone levels. And clinical trials in both men and women have shown that PT-141, the peptide PT-141 significantly enhances libido and sexual satisfaction. As a matter of fact, there's one very interesting study in women with what's called Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder. I think that name kind of speaks for itself. HSDD, Hypoactive Underactive Sexual Desire.

Ben Greenfield [00:18:45]: It improved arousal, desire and orgasmic quality in those women. And in men, it's been found to not only increase libido but also improve erectile function. So again, that one is called PT-141. Also goes by the name bremelanotide. So that is a pretty potent and powerful one that you can look into, PT-141. Another one would be L-citrulline. There's one powder packet, it's called JOYMODE and it contains an amino acid that boosts nitric oxide production. You'll also find L-citrulline in a lot of pre-workout formulas.

Ben Greenfield [00:19:20]: It improves blood flow to your entire body, including like Viagra does to genital tissues, without necessarily requiring you to have a prescription for a little blue pill or going to a fringe online pharmacy to find a generic form of Viagra. So L-citrulline has been shown to enhance sexual performance and can indirectly increase libido by improving sexual satisfaction. Kind of like that positive feedback loop. You're having great sex so your libido goes up. A lot of us have experienced that. One study in men with mild erectile dysfunction found that L-citrulline supplementation significantly improved erection hardness but also frequency of intercourse.

Ben Greenfield [00:20:00]: And that is probably because men who were taking it enjoyed sex more. And again, that can create this positive feedback loop of higher libido. Maca root maca root is another one. Maca root is something that can enhance both libido and fertility. It also supports adrenal function. It's a very potent adaptogenic herb. A lot of people don't like the taste of it. There are many coffee mixes, etc., that are using maca as like a coffee mix or tea mix alternative.

Ben Greenfield [00:20:27]: But studies on humans have shown that maca can enhance sexual desire in both men and women. There is one placebo controlled study that showed that maca improve libido in men with erectile dysfunction and they also did another study on men who had antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction. That's probably something I should have mentioned when I was discussing reasons people have low libido. But if you're on an SSRI, because that does, as the name implies, inhibit the reuptake of serotonin, it can decrease libido. And maca seems to help if you're on an SSRI and have SSRI-induced low libido. So that's interesting. Again, don't take that as medical advice. I'm not a doctor.

Ben Greenfield [00:21:10]: I know I keep saying that, but macaroon would be another fenugreek. Fenugreek has also been shown to be something that can improve libido in some cases very similar to L-citrulline because it can assist with erectile quality as well. But they had one study in healthy men that showed that fenugreek supplementation significantly improves libido and overall sexual satisfaction compared to a placebo. And there is a small amount of research indicating that may do similarly in women. Yohimbine. Yohimbine is an extract from the bark of the yohimbi tree, and it works by increasing norepinephrine levels, and that in turn can improve blood flow and sexual arousal. It acts as what's called an alpha-2 adrenergic antagonist. All that means is that it affects the central and the peripheral nervous system in such a way that improves sexual function.

Ben Greenfield [00:22:04]: And indeed, multiple studies have shown that yohimbine can improve sexual desire and performance, particularly in men with erectile dysfunction. The only downside to yohimbine compared to something like fenugreek or maca or L-citrulline or PT-141. Is that it? Because it's a central nervous system stimulant, it can keep you awake. So if you're taking this like on date night, just be aware that you might be up at 2:00 am, you know, staring at the ceiling, thinking about your partner who's in bed next to you, trying to get some sleep. PT-141 can also do that, but via a different mechanism. It can cause erections that can be somewhat painful and distracting and last four to six hours. So that also could of course, impact whatever your wearable is telling you was your sleep quality the next morning. So anyways, though we don't just have to use supplements or herbs to increase libido.

Ben Greenfield [00:23:01]: There are some other things that are associated with an increase in libido. Cold therapy. I mentioned that as something fantastic for testosterone levels, but it also increases Norepinephrine levels that helps to increase energy, improves mood, and for many people. There are no studies on this, but reportedly anecdotally, it can lead to a higher libido. My recommendation would not be to take a cold bath or a cold shower immediately prior to sex because you get the the infamous Seinfeld shrinkage effect. However, having a regularly scheduled cold practice, such as in the morning, helped to stabilize norepinephrine levels so that long term you would induce better libido overall. Exercise boosts endorphins and improves overall well being. And it's pretty common that people who start exercising, particularly weight training, experience an increase in libido.

Ben Greenfield [00:23:57]: And studies have backed this up, showing that moderate intensity exercise can improve sexual satisfaction and arousal. So the last thing is that there's a small number of studies showing that some type of meditation and mindfulness practice, particularly visualization practices, focused on increased libido. And visualization works for many things, right? You visualize better sleep, you can visualize better relationships, you can visualize increased libido. They may also help with something like this, a meditation or mindfulness practice based on increasing libido. I realize that sounds sounds boring and very unsexy. I've never tried meditating or mindfulness practices myself for improving libido or anything related to sexual performance. But some people say, and some studies back it up, that that might actually be another tactic. So, coming full circle, we've got peptides like PT-141.

Ben Greenfield [00:24:52]: We have supplements like L-citrulline, maca, fenugreek and yohimbine. We have cold plunges and exercise all as ways that we could naturally increase libido without necessarily using testosterone replacement therapy, which may not actually increase libido at all. So good to know and great question from Jeremy. All right, we are going to move on to Kyle. Kyle's got an interesting question. He says, "what does your current travel workout routine look like?" Well, if you're unfamiliar with what I do as a job, I record this podcast. I write books, occasionally.

Ben Greenfield [00:25:35]: I have a new one coming out in January. Shout out to my book, Boundless. The new and updated version of Boundless. I invest in some companies and do some advisory work for companies. I coach and consult with people throughout the week. People hire me for phone calls to talk about health issues or workout performance, nutrition, diet, their labs, etc. I even coach. Right now, I coach eight people. So every month people pay me to coach them and kind of like oversee their exercise and their nutrition program.

Ben Greenfield [00:26:05]: And I also travel to speak. I travel around the world to speak. And sometimes I'm traveling two weeks out of every month. So I'm on planes a lot, I'm traveling a lot. And of course I have to stay fit when I travel. So what does that look like? How do I stay fit when I travel? So first of all, I want to describe to you what my travel workout kit looks like. I just packed last night for a trip. I'm leaving for tomorrow to Phoenix.

Ben Greenfield [00:26:29]: So my travel pack, my lightweight travel pack, step one is I pack BFR bands or Katsu bands. Both are somewhat similar. They allow you to restrict blood flow to the arms and the legs. And even in the absence of weights, proper gym, et cetera, fool your muscles into thinking they're lifting a heavy weight, when in fact all you may be doing with them like I do, are bodyweight exercises, elastic band exercises, walking, swimming, etc. I have to admit that I'm a little bit lazy. And even though I have the fancy thousand dollar plus Katsu bands, which are the Japanese version that have a digital little device that allows you to, using your phone app or a digital controller, very precisely adjust the millimeters of mercury of the Katsu bands. Sometimes I'm pretty old school and I've just got like the $50 set off Amazon and just strap those bad boys on. I go back and forth.

Ben Greenfield [00:27:26]: I kind of like the simplicity of just throwing the cheapo ones on. Call me a Luddite, but the Katsu ones are kind of like the creme de la creme if you really are into digital self quantification and having everything very precisely controlled. But whether it's the BFR bands or the Katsu bands, that's about maximum of like a pound worth of equipment that fits into a very small space. I don't ever check any bags when I travel unless it's a, a big long trip, like multiple weeks internationally. So I'm only carry-on. Okay, Just so you know. So BFR bands are Katsu bands. One elastic band, just a mid resistance elastic band.

Ben Greenfield [00:28:01]: The one that I choose is one that if I were to do like an overhead press with an elastic band, I couldn't do more than 10 reps. Okay. So that, that's about the, the level of resistance I'm going for, which for me is a mid-size elastic band. And then I have a door frame suspension strap that's like a TRX trainer. Mine is like the $25 version of the TRX trainer that I got off Amazon. I can Throw in any hotel room door, well constructed Airbnb door, etc., and be able to do things like pull-ups or knee ups using a door frame suspension strap. In the absence of something like a pull-up bar, it comes in quite handy. So I'm not limited to just doing say push ups and squats.

Ben Greenfield [00:28:42]: So that's it, that's my exercise kit is the BFR bands, the elastic band and the door frame suspension strap. Using that kit, I can very easily work out in any hotel room, backyard, basement, etc. And I'll describe what my workouts are to you momentarily, how that actually manifests itself when I travel. I also have a couple of other things. I have a water bottle called a Mobot water bottle. And again, I travel very light. So I'm always thinking how can I squeeze as much as possible into as small a space as possible? Mobot is a bottle that can double as a foam roller or as a deep tissue device. Brilliant idea.

Ben Greenfield [00:29:20]: Stainless steel bottle. I can drink from it at airport. So I'm not spending $7.99 on a bottle of water at the airport, which I realize is ironic as I sit here and sip what is probably a $40 bottle of hyper oxygenated water. But those Mobot bottles are super cool because I can do all my deep tissue work with that. And then in addition to that, I have one of those really small massage guns, the Power Plate is the brand that I use. TSA doesn't care about it. They seem to kind of raise an eyebrow at the bigger ones that they consider to be power tools, which apparently are banned by TSA for travel. And I have had those confiscated before.

Ben Greenfield [00:29:55]: The Power Plate, a little vibration gun, never had any problems with that, so I got that in there. And then the only other thing is in my fanny pack I have this little device called a relaxator. And it allows me to go for walks and restrict airflow when I walk. If I want to do some breath work while I'm walking, and that's it. And then all of that is literally total everything, including the percussion gun, the water bottle, everything. Easily under four pounds. Okay, so all of that goes into my backpack or my carry-on suitcase. I have a small expandable carry-on suitcase and a backpack.

Ben Greenfield [00:30:29]: That's all I travel with. Using all that, what do my workouts actually look like? So ideal travel routine for me. Let's say I am traveling for six days. Day one would be 30 minutes of BFR training in my hotel room. Gold standard workout for me is I put the BFR bands on both my arms and my legs, and I do 30 squats, 20 pushups, 10 door frame pull-ups. And then I do 30 lunges per leg, 20 dips on the coffee table or the chair in the hotel room, and 10 little bigs, which you can Google, but that's just like a core exercise. And I do an AMRAP of that. So 30 squats, 20 pushups, 10 pull-ups, 30 lunges, 20 dips, and then 10 of the little bigs. Usually as a finisher, I'll take out that elastic band and just do as many overhead presses as I can.

Ben Greenfield [00:31:25]: Although a lot of times I'm just using the elastic band like in the airport to throw in some extra overhead presses or whatever, but that's what it looks like. So an AMRAP of 30 minutes. And if I have time after I finish that AMRAP, I leave the elastic bands on and I go for a walk or I leave the BFR bands on and I go for a walk while I check my emails and catch up on a little bit of work. Because I shared this research, I think two episodes ago. Even walking with BFR bands helps to maintain muscle because of the blood flow restriction. And, and then, so that's day one. Day two, I would typically not use the BFR bands or anything else. And day two, I'll usually just like go for a long walk, stop for burpees along the way, do a few occasional sprints. If there happens to be an exercise machine where I'm staying, I'll do a little bit of cardio.

Ben Greenfield [00:32:12]: And so I alternate back and forth between day one, BFR bands and walking, day two, walking with some cardio and calisthenics thrown in and that's it. So let's say that I know that I'm traveling to a place where there's going to be a good gym and I really don't have to do all that stuff in my hotel room. Well, in that case, I have a little bit of a different approach. If I have access to the average hotel gym or, you know, my Airbnb is at some kind of a condominium complex that has a decent gym. My workouts are all full body. The reason for this is when you travel, it's inevitable that you're going to miss some workout days. And if you're doing a body part split, let's say you're doing like a, I don't know, push, pull, leg, split, or you're doing a chest, shoulders, day one. Back, arms, day two. Core legs, day three type of split. Well, when you travel, it's Just hard to not miss days occasionally.

Ben Greenfield [00:33:12]: Like it might be an airplane day or the day might have a schedule that's a little bit different for you. And if you miss a body part split day, you miss a day, right? So that means that if you're not doing a full body workout and you miss a day or two, you're missing out on certain body parts just because they're not getting work. Like if you're doing a push, pull legs routine and you miss legs, well, you miss legs, right? And so then you're going to be the guy who's pushing and pulling with toothpick legs or the girl who's pushing and pulling with toothpick legs. So I always do full body. My full body workout, because I'm all about reducing decision-making fatigue and knowing exactly what I'm going to do right when I walk into the gym is very simple. I do a 2-minute cardio warmup and then I choose one exercise that's a horizontal push, one exercise that's a horizontal pull, one exercise that's a vertical push, one exercise that's a vertical pull, and then something for the core and the legs. Okay, so what this would look like would be I walk into the gym, I do two minutes on the bike, and then I do the chest press for my horizontal push, the row for my horizontal pull, the leg press for my legs, the overhead press for my vertical push, the pull down for my vertical pull, something core, like a low back extension or whatever for my core, and then go back to the two minutes of cardio and I'll do that as an amrap. So I walk into the gym, look at my clock.

Ben Greenfield [00:34:41]: Okay, I got 45 minutes. That's all I'm doing. Two minutes of cardio, horizontal push, horizontal pull legs, vertical push, vertical pull, core back to cardio. It's very simple. It keeps me from missing body parts due to body part split style workout. And again, like, I've got the option if I've got my BFR bands, my elastic band and my door frame suspension strap to not even walk out of my hotel room, to even go hunt down the gym. But if there's a good gym, that's usually the approach that I use. And that is basically how I work out when I travel.

Ben Greenfield [00:35:13]: Last thing I should mention is that if I'm doing the workout I just described you, the two minutes of cardio with the horizontal push, horizontal pole, legs, vertical push, vertical pole, core. Then the following day, it's very similar to the day that follows the day I do the BFR training, I go for a walk, I do a little bit of calisthenics, I move my body, do a little bit of cardio or burpees. So it's always alternating. One day of some kind of strength training, one day of some kind of cardio walking and core when I'm traveling and that's it. And I stay pretty fit when I travel and I enjoy that routine. I could do it my whole life. It just, it works. So great question Kyle, and hopefully that helps to kind of decode my approach to training when I travel.

Ben Greenfield [00:35:58]: So I really wanted to and I'm glad I have time to do this. I wanted to also bring to light a recent study that I thought was fantastic because it honest speaks to something that I do quite often I use essential amino acids as a tool to maintain or build muscle and I'm often asked, well why would you need to use these if you are doing something like a whey protein or a vegan protein shake which already has essential amino acids, or you're using steak or chicken or fish or whatever. So this most recent study that came out in mid-October 2024 is titled Consuming Whey Protein with Added Essential Amino Acids, not Carbohydrate, Maintains Post-Exercise Anabolism while Underfed." I won't repeat that title in case it made smoke come out your ears, but if you think about it, it's pretty straightforward. When you have something like a whey protein shake and you add essential amino acids to it, not branched chain amino acids but essential amino acids, EAAs, compared to adding carbohydrates to that whey protein, you get better anabolism or muscle building effects even if you are undereating, even if you are not consuming adequate calories compared to how many calories you're actually burning. Now in this case they had subjects consume a whey protein style shake with essential amino acids added to it or a whey protein shake with carbohydrates added to it. And then they measured muscle protein synthesis, whole body protein synthesis, whole body protein breakdown and net protein balance. Supplementing with the essential amino acid-enriched whey protein resulted in much better post exercise muscle protein synthesis even during an energy deficit compared to adding the carbs into the whey protein.

Ben Greenfield [00:38:02]: Now in this case they were using pretty high doses of essential amino acids in this whey protein shake. They were using, make sure I get this right. Got the study pulled up in front of me now. Okay, it was a 300 calorie shake and they had 48 grams of essential amino acids in there. That's a lot. Like one scoop of the Kion Aminos. The one that I use is 5 grams. So that would have been like, you do the math, like nine scoops of essential amino acids.

Ben Greenfield [00:38:33]: That's a lot. But there have been other studies that came out prior to this that looked into just the same thing using far less essential amino acids. For example, back in 2020, there was a study in which they found that the anabolic response to essential amino acids plus whey protein was greater than whey protein alone. And in that case they were using 3 grams of essential amino acids added to whey protein, which is like less than a full scoop of something like the Kion Aminos. So even a small dose of essential amino acids has an impact at improving muscle protein synthesis compared to not adding amino acids at all to a protein shake. And then there was another study that was in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition in 2021 that found that when you add essential amino acids to whey protein, you get better post-exercise, whole body protein balance, again, during an energy deficit, compared to a regular meal. What's called a mixed macronutrient meal, like your average, I don't know, breakfast with hash browns and eggs and toast, or a whey protein shake. And in this case again, they did this on a bunch of of healthy young men.

Ben Greenfield [00:39:52]: The amount of amino acids that they use in this case was around looks like 24 grams. Right. So decent amount. You know, in this case, again, if we were talking about the kion aminos, that would be four to five scoops. And again, they saw pretty impressive benefits compared to just using the whey protein alone. So what's the takeaway study here? If you're making a protein shake, it's like, and you're trying to build or maintain muscle, it's kind of a no-brainer, better living through science thing to add anywhere from 5 up to 45-ish grams of essential amino acids to the whey protein shake. If you want to see much better muscle protein synthesis and if you want to know more about just the whole science of essential amino acids and how these work, Angelo Keeley, who is the CEO of Kion, he was recently interviewed on the Mind Pump Podcast and they talked for like an hour and a half about a ton of really interesting data on why essential amino acids are like a Swiss army knife, like a secret weapon when it comes to fitness. That would be a good one to listen to.

Ben Greenfield [00:40:57]: The Mind Pump guys are friends of mine. They're great dudes, very entertaining podcast hosts. Way more entertaining than me. And I'll put a link to that episode at bengreenfieldlife.com/481. So that is gonna just about wrap up today's show. But of course if you have questions, comments or feedback you can go to bengreenfieldlife.com/481 and leave your thoughts there. I always love to hear your guys questions and so everything that I talked about in today's show about different peptides and microdosing with Ozempic and my workout travel pack, I'll put links to all that stuff in the show notes as well. So I hope this has been helpful for you. Thank you so much for listening in. I'm Ben Greenfield, signing out. Have an incredible week.

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