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Dr Mike T Nelson

Creator of the Flex Diet Cert & Phys Flex Cert, CSCS, CISSN, Assoc Professor, kiteboarder, lifter of odd objects, metal music lover. >>>>Sign up to my daily FREE Fitness Insider newsletter below

Featured Post

Why Doing “Everything Right” Still Isn’t Building Muscle

The other day I did with my brother from down under, Ben Mayfield-Smith, where I joined him on his podcast, Matter Athletica, to talk about what actually shapes muscle growth beyond just sets and reps. Most people understand the primary drivers of hypertrophy — mechanical tension, load, and progression. What they miss are the secondary and tertiary factors that determine whether those drivers can actually be accessed consistently over time. In this episode, Ben and I unpack how: Aerobic...

Carb cycling has been floating around the fitness world for decades. Some people treat it like a magic trick.Others think it’s unnecessary complexity. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle. In this episode of the Flex Diet Podcast, I sat down with Jon Heck to talk through how carb cycling actually works in the real world, not as a diet gimmick, but as a practical tool for performance, recovery, and body composition when it’s applied correctly. We dig into timing, hydration,...

Carb cycling has been floating around the fitness world for decades. Some people treat it like a magic trick.Others think it’s unnecessary complexity. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle. In this episode of the Flex Diet Podcast, I sat down with Jon Heck to talk through how carb cycling actually works in the real world, not as a diet gimmick, but as a practical tool for performance, recovery, and body composition when it’s applied correctly. We dig into timing, hydration,...

Training time is sacred to my sanity as I am sure it it to you. Full stop. This previous week in Minnesota was very difficult for me personally. It was stupidly easy to get sucked into a vortex of rage, disgust, and “how are people okay with this?” I tried as hard as I could to keep my 1-2 hours per day just for me to go to war with gravity. Not politics. Not comment sections. Not strangers on the internet. No internet, just music via old skool CDs. Just me… versus the iron. I turn my phone...

Just a short intro here, as my wife and I just came back from a beautiful vigil/memorial for Alex Pretti. Huge shout-out to our great friend Christa and her staff for doing an amazing job with it. It's ok to be sad at times and grieve. The world feels crazy now, especially here in Minneapolis. It's ok to take care of yourself. Stand up,Keep fighting, Keep going. Here's what went down this week. Newsletters: The 4 x 40 "Rule": The stupid-simple 4×40 protein rule that quietly fixes recovery,...

As I write this, a lot of people are walking around with their nervous systems pinned at redline. Not in some dramatic, movie-scene way. More like the slow burn kind. Jaw tight without noticing. Sleep getting lighter. Breathing shallow enough that you don't realize it until you sigh and feel your shoulders drop an inch. Doom-scrolling late, waking up wired, and wondering why patience feels thinner than it used to. Here's what most people don't connect: When your nervous system is...

I didn’t set out to create a “rule.” Rules are for hall monitors and people who say that everyone gets a trophy. I was just watching too many smart lifters quietly bleed out progress. Good training.Decent food.Enough discipline to scare the patrons of the hallowed purple halls of PF. …And yet their recovery felt like sand in the gears. Strength crawled. Hunger was like a feral cat at night if it was smoking with Snoop Dog. Everyone had that same haunted look, like they were doing everything...

Cold plunges have gone from “old-school recovery tool” to full-blown biohacker religion. Some people swear by them.Some people swear they’re killing your gains. And almost nobody is asking the only question that matters: What does the physiology actually say? In this episode of the Flex Diet Podcast, I sat down with Dr. Cass Fuchs from Maastricht University to break down the real science behind cold water immersion and what it does to: Muscle protein synthesis Recovery and performance...

It's Sunday, and I'm still feeling shattered from the events in Minnesota recently. I alternate between periods of profound sadness, anger, helplessness, and then back to hope, and then the cycle starts all over again. Thank you for all the kind notes everyone has sent in this difficult time. Thank you to all who purchased the Microlectures this past week. I've decided to personally match the amount raised and donate it to those affected in MN, providing them with food, water, diapers, and...

Hey friends, Muscle growth is one of those topics where the signal-to-noise ratio is absolutely brutal. Everyone has a hot take.Everyone has a “new” method. And somehow we keep circling back to the same questions about volume, frequency, recovery, and why people stall out or burn themselves into the ground. In this episode of the Flex Diet Podcast, I sat down with my buddy Ben Mayfield-Smith from Matter Athletica to unpack what actually drives hypertrophy in the real world — not just on...