Muscle Expert Podcast | Ben Pakulski Interviews | How To Build Muscle & Dominate Life

A few years ago Cavin Balaster was involved in a serious accident which left him in a coma with less than a 10 percent chance of survival which would have been in a vegetative state.  Flash forward to today and Cavin is not only able to lead a normal life but has also written a book about the experience.  Join us as Cavin tells his story and gives great insight on how he was able to support brain healing through nutrition and supplemental changes.    This episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic Mushrooms.  Lion’s Mane is the only proven supplement to improve neurogenesis, the growth of new neurons.  Use code Muscle at FourSigmatic.com for 15% off of your order!   Time Stamps   2:00- The accident that changed Cavin’s life forever and the life changing research that he did as a result.   4:45- Giving your brain its best shot.  Cavin shares advice on how to encourage brain health.   9:30- How “under the table” nutrients helped Cavin’s brain start to restore function.   14:15- The importance of gut health for

Ali Miller is a certified dietitian, the host of the Naturally Nourished Podcast, and author of the new book The Anti-Anxiety Diet.  Ben and Ali sit down to discuss how you can mitigate anxiety through diet without the short term “feel good” junk foods.  Ali gives us her 5 R’s protocol to heal your gut and reset your neurotransmitter function as well as her method for women to cycle in carbs on a keto style diet to support hormone cycles.  Make sure to pick up Ali’s new book The Anti-Anxiety Diet, available everywhere Tuesday August 7th.   This episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic!  One of the highlights from this show was Ali’s use of cordyceps as an adaptogen to optimize executive function.  If you want to experiment with this as well check out Four Sigmatic’s line of cordycep products and use code Muscle for 15% off of your order!   Highlights   “Exercise it the most underused anti-depressant and food is the most over-utilized anti-anxiety cure.“   Remove inflammation, restore the micro biome, rebuil

Dr. Mike Nelson is one of the world’s leading experts on metabolic flexibility and creator of the Flex Diet program.  Ben and Dr. Mike dive deep on what influences metabolic flexibility, the benefits of fat and carb adaptation and how to more quickly adapt to each.  Highlights include how macros can effect your heart rate variability, what you can deduce from your blood glucose levels, and Dr. Mike’s recommended diet for longevity.   Time Stamps   5:45- What causes your body to be less efficient at using fat for fuel?   11:20- What causes the keto flu and how can you mitigate it.   14:30- What scenarios would make it better to be fat vs carb adapted.   17:45- Will you still see a performance increase from carbs even if you aren’t training hard enough to enter your glycogen stores?   20:45- Is it possible to adapt to high training volume when you are in ketosis?   24:30- Intraset recovery when in ketosis.  Is it possible to go to failure multiple times per training session if you are fat fueled.   31:00- Dr. M

Joining us today is one of the top Crossfit Nutritionists Jason Phillips of IN3 Nutrition.  Ben and Jason discuss how he fell into nutrition through an eating disorder, cycling training and diet through pre, post, and competition season, and the struggles of keeping your kids on a healthy diet.  Top highlights include eating for performance vs for body comp, the psychology behind prescribing a diet, how your diet can effect your hormones and much more.   This episode is brought to you by ATP Labs.  Use code Ben10 to get 10% off your order and don’t forget to sign up for their newsletter for free shipping!

Joining us today is a woman who is leading the talk of avoiding foods that have high instances of intolerance.  JJ Virgin is the author of several NYT best sellers, has appeared on numerous TV shows as a nutrition expert and is a world renown public speaker on the topics of health and wellness.  Ben and JJ discuss how she is leading the conversation on avoiding the foods that most people can’t tolerate and her new conversation on being a “Warrior Mom”. Highlights include the importance of detoxing prior to fatloss, the seven foods JJ suggests avoiding and how to figure out what foods don’t work for you.   This episode is brought to you by BiOptimizers MassZymes.  You’re not what you eat, you are what you absorb.  MassZymes supports gut bacteria and helps breakdown what you are putting into your body.  Use code MuscleBen18 or visit MassZymes.com/muscleintelligence for 15 percent off of your order.   Highlights   Fat is the vessel in which much of our toxins are stored.  JJ answers why it is imperative to detox

We are taking a deep dive into nutrition for the next couple of weeks on the Muscle Expert Podcast!  To kick things off I am discussing my personal approach to nutrition as well as answering the questions that many of you submitted via social media.   Stay tuned for the next two weeks to hear what all of our nutrition guests have to contribute.

Joining us today is Dr. Beau Hightower, the Director of Sports Medicine for Jackson/Wink MMA.  Dr. Hightower is known for keeping Jackson/Wink’s fighters in amazing health, they haven’t had a preventable injury drop out in his 3 years there.  Ben and Beau dive into best practices to prevent injury, Dr. Hightower’s unique approach to treat injuries and how he deduces what modality he should use for individual ailments. This episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic Mushrooms.  Use code Muscle to receive 15% off your Four Sigmatic order and through July 20th, 2018 you can receive an additional 10% off of the reduced prices for Four Sigmatic’s retiring blends. Highlights You should avoid stretching pre training.  Instead use light foam rolling of contributing muscles. Dynamic warmup with light weights before lifting heavy. The evolutionary reason why certain muscles seem to always be tight. How Dr. Hightower keeps his athletes healthy and ready to fight. Time Stamp 5:30- Mitigating overuse injuries- Assessing c

Joining us today on the Muscle Expert Podcast is Keto Cardiologist Dr. Nadir Ali.  Dr. Ali is challenging conventional wisdom when it comes to cholesterol.  Ben and Dr. Ali discuss how our understanding of cholesterol is misguided as it is simply a transporter for energy from fat.  Dr. Ali’s insight came from watching cholesterol rise in people who are fasted.  Listen in to hear about the good side of LDL, LCHF diet and more from Dr. Nadir Ali. Highlights LDL cholesterol as an energy transporter. Why a low carb, high fat diet is cardiologist recommended. Dr. Ali challenging conventional wisdom around LDL and cholesterol. The research that supports elevated cholesterol. 4:00-  How Dr. Ali came to believe keto was the optimal diet. 8:30- Dr. Ali’s thoughts on LDL and keto. 13:35- LDL as a fat transporter.  Why fasting will increase “bad cholesterol” in a good way. 19:50- The many functions of LDL. 21:00- The importance of CoQ10 for burning fuel. 25:30- Breaking the paradigm of cholesterol, is there actually goo

We are programmed to focus more on the negative than the positive.  This allowed us to avoid danger and humans to prosper. In modern times our stresses are generally less about safety, so where does that leave us? Joining us today is Ben’s favorite author, Dr. Rick Hanson to discuss how we can train our neurochemistry to go against what nature intended. Dr. Hanson is the author of Buddha’s Brain and Resilient to name a couple.  Today he teaches us how focusing on positivity and gratitude can help us overcome our negativity bias, reduce cortisol and change our brain neurochemistry to live a positive stress-free life in modern times. Highlights Overcoming your natural negative bias to live a life of positivity and gratitude. Why compassion and empathy are the key to living a great life with great relationships. Gratitude, the key to an amazing life? Deficit vs abundance mindset how to change your neurochemistry. Time Stamps 4:30- Changing your negative default.  Why you are hardwired to focus on the negative an

  Dr. Scott Sherr is one of the world’s leading doctors when it comes to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.  On this episode of the Muscle Expert Podcast Ben and Dr. Sherr dive into the benefits and limitations of hyperbaric treatments as well as the expected results.  Tune in to learn how you can upgrade your detox pathways, angiogenesis and neurogenesis, performance and epigenetic expression with oxygen and pressure therapy. This episode is brought to you by ATP Labs.  Use code Ben10 to get 10% off your supplement order and sign up for ATP's newsletter to get free shipping! Highlights- The benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy- new blood vessel growth, neurogenesis, detoxing, healing and more. Using hyperbaric therapy to treat acute conditions such as heart attacks, strokes and concussions. Upgrading your VO2 Max with HBOT How you can reverse your brain age through hyperbaric therapy. Changing genetic expression with hyperbaric therapy.   1:00- Dr. Sherr’s unique beginnings and how it lead to his hyperbaric special

Today Mastin Kipp,the creator of Functional Life Coaching(TM) and best selling author of Claim Your Power, joins us to discuss emotional resilience, trauma and forging your own destiny.  Mastin was named one of Oprah’s 100 super souls, has mentored under Tony Robbins and even had a successful career in the music industry.  In this episode he and Ben have an in depth conversation about how Mastin left the music industry and found a career in personal development.  They discuss traumas, coping techniques, and how to take control over your circumstances and succeed at your purpose.     4:00- The science behind finding your purpose and how it improves your health.   7:30- Finding your purpose.  How Mastin found his purpose in helping people find their purpose.   16:00- Primal threat, the reason “rock bottom” propels success.   18:15- Community and micro biome, two of the biggest movers of your mindset.   23:15- The mindset of success.  How truth, love, and positivity will accelerate your life and body gains.   27

The Nootropics Expert joins the Muscle Expert today to discuss hacking flow state.  David Tomen dove into nootropics after being diagnosed with adult ADD, he has since become one of the world’s leading experts on hacking your brain.  Join David and Ben as they discuss hacking flow-state, a state of focus that results in complete absorption in a task.  Ben and David also discuss some great nootropics that they have both had good results with as well as ways to support neurotransmitter function.   This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic.  Use code Muscle for 15% off your mushroom order!   Time Stamps-   7:00- Why David started experimenting with nootropics and became the authority on optimizing your brain.   9:45- Defining flow-state- how to optimize your chances of getting into a productive, meditative state.   22:30- Caffeine and state.  Is coffee keeping you from optimal productivity?   32:50- Supporting brain function.  How to figure out your bottleneck and how to fix it.   37:30- The primary neurot

Today we have Quantified Bob joining us to demystify biohacking.  Bob fell into biohacking to optimize his entrepreneur lifestyle and started tracking his results from different experiments.  Years later that has evolved into a successful biohacking blog and even a facility in New York.  Bob shares with us his greatest tips for getting rid of environmental pollution including VOCs, EMFs and how to clean up your air in a city filled with pollution.  Ben and Bob also discuss some great biohacking tech that Bob uses daily and has even incorporated into his facility in NYC.   4:30- How Bob fell into running a biohacking blog.   7:40- Understanding your environment.  The steps Bob takes to mitigate VOCs, EMFs, and more while living in one of the largest cities in the world.   16:30- Mitigating the environmental burdens of living in a big city.  How to shield yourself from EMFs and Wifi signals.   23:30-  Hacking your water.  Which purifiers give your the most bang for your buck?   27:00- Using air purifiers and oz

Christina Rice of the Wellness Realness Podcast joins us today to discuss how nutrition and relationships helped her overcome anxiety and depression.  Listen in and hear her and Ben discuss how you can live a great life by treating your body well and cutting out negativity.  They discuss parenting, nutrition, relationships and much more in this great, casual conversation between health experts. This episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic Mushrooms.  Upgrade your health and live your greatest life with mushroom supplements.  Use code Muscle for 15% off at checkout. 2:30- How Christina and Ben both approach wellness in very similar ways.    4:15- How Christina fell into fitness “bodybuilding style” and the necessity of enjoying training.   6:30-  How Christina found health and fitness trying to escape anxiety and depression.   14:45- What Christina found contributed to her poor mental and physical health in high school and college.   17:00- “How’s your mind?”  Chasing happiness through junk food only leads

  Today we have on Baylor Professor and Advisor to the ISSN, Dr. Darryn Willoughby.  Dr. Willoughby is a competitive bodybuilder and researcher.  He is currently researching the effects of exercise and nutrition on physical, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms.  Ben and Dr. Willoughby discuss muscle protein synthesis, the scientific thought process and whether there is a need for supplementation.  Dr. Willoughby shares his protein and supplement regimen as well as what he is excited about in the world of exercise science research in this science deep dive episode.   This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market.  We have been LOVING Thrive’s new meat selection.  Eat like Ben and order the Premium Cuts Beef Box and don’t forget to use code Muscle Expert for 25% off and a month of free shipping!   6:30- How the scientific thought process evolves.  How Dr. Willoughby forges the path for new discoveries in science.   9:45- Exploring exercise research methods. Should we study the average population or the opti

Dr. Tom O’Bryan, leading expert on autoimmunity joins us today to discuss the factors contributing to autoimmunity. Ben and Tom discuss the dietary, environmental, and biological factors that lead to autoimmunity. Topics covered include how to transition your diet versus going cold turkey, the effect your micro biome has on your genetic expressions, your CNS’s effect on your overall health and how grains and gluten affect your gut. This episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic Mushrooms. Upgrade your brain with Four Sigmatic Mushrooms and use code Muscle for 15% off your order. Go to FourSigmatic.com/muscle for your discount. 2:20- Why Encinidas is the center for health and wellness. The yogi mentality. 5:00- Morality vs religion. The approach of Paramahansa Yogananda. 11:00- How your psychology is affecting your health and your susceptibility to autoimmunity. The contributors to autoimmunity genetics, environment, and intestinal permeability. 22:45- What are the triggers for autoimmunity? 25:00- Your gut

Dave Palumbo introduced the bodybuilding world to keto way before it was a fad. His findings on macro balancing and nutrient absorption have challenged the paradigm around the bodybuilder diet. Ben and Dave discuss how Dave stumbled upon the ketogenic diet, how he is trying to change the thought process behind diet in the bodybuilding world, cheat days and their thoughts on the current state of bodybuilding as well as who the next big names could be in the sport. 3:15- How Dave accidentally found the ketogenic diet and started using it in bodybuilding. 8:45- Why the “bodybuilding diet” isn’t the best diet for bodybuilders. 11:00- How Dave became one of the biggest dudes on the planet. Why you should put more focus into food absorption not more food. 13:30- Dave’s findings on the ketogenic diet and getting shredded. 17:45- Is it optimal to build muscle on keto? 19:00- Carbs and cortisol. Which moves the needle more, food or sleep? 23:30- How Dave manipulates his clients diets. 27:20- Dave’s muscle gaining die

Danny Vega aka Keto Counter Culture joins us today to continue our deep dive into the Ketogenic Diet. Danny has been keto for over 2 years and has recently incorporated a carnivore keto diet. He and Ben discuss the use of exogenous ketones to increase focus and performance, the effectiveness of a ketogenic diet for everyone including pro athletes, how to minimize the keto flu, and his and Ben’s recent foray into building muscle on keto. Go check out Danny on The Ketogenic Athlete Podcast and @ketocounterculture! This episode is brought to you buy Thrive Market. Check out ThriveMarket.com/MuscleExpert for 25% off your first order and free shipping for a month! Go pick up all of your keto or non keto grocery needs. 2:00- How Danny got into keto and made a smooth transition from a carb based diet. 5:45- How Ben’s keto adaptation is going. 8:00- The Carnivore Keto Cut. Danny’s new keto program that helps people get into ketosis. 10:45- Upping the adaptation process. How fasting can minimize the keto flu and help

Dr. Dominic D’Agostino is one of the world’s leading researchers on the ketogenic diet. Dr. D’Agostino is a researcher and assistant professor at the University of South Florida’s College of medicine and consistently works with the military and NASA to develop ways for soldiers and astronauts to stay energized and sharp while on mission. Ben and Dominic go deep on how to best adapt to fat for fuel, how to supplement fats and ketones for optimal performance both physically and mentally as well as discuss who the ketogenic diet is for and optimal nutrition for keto. This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market! Go to ThriveMarket.com/MuscleExpert for 25% off your first order and free shipping for a month. Go stock up on all of your fats! 6:30- What is the best way to get keto adapted as quickly as possible? 10:15- How much fat is too much fat in one sitting? 12:45- The viability of exogenous ketones vs other supplemental fats such as MCT’s. 21:00- What’s the appropriate dose of exogenous ketones? 25:00- Sho

Dr. Benjamin Bikman, one of the world’s leading minds on the topic of insulin sensitivity joins us today to discuss the ketogenic diet and the importance of lowering insulin.  Ben and Dr. Bikman dive deep on the western diet and how it has created a myriad of insulin disorders.  Listen in to hear how to reset your insulin sensitivity and how to run optimally on a low carbohydrate diet. This episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. Check out Ben's favorite Mushroom Elixer, Lionsmane for enhanced cognitive function, better concentration and improved memory.   Go to FourSigmatic.com/Muscle or use code Muscle at checkout to receive 15% off of your order! Time Stamps: 2:15- Why it is important to eat a low insulin spiking diet. 8:25- What is the process of losing insulin sensitivity?  Is it over consumption in youth or a natural occurrence? 14:15- What happens in your body when you have chronically elevated insulin levels? 18:45- How does elevated blood glucose impact our mitochondria? 24:45- Is it possible to