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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

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Almost gone...

Quick one before I head out to the water — wind is up and the kite is calling my name. Last Thursday I told you about the nootropic I accidentally took too many servings of at once. Ooops. Unlabeled sample bottle, assumed one serving, was emphatically not one serving, had one of the cleanest deep work sessions of my adult life and reported back to Tomer at Switch like a completely unrepentant human guinea pig. Since then, over 75% of the initial batch is already pre-ordered. Tomorrow the...

In this episode of the Flex Diet Podcast, I sit down with my good buddy Ari Whitten to talk all about red light therapy (photobiomodulation) and why it’s become so popular lately. We dig into how red and near-infrared light fits into an evolutionary sunlight context, why those wavelengths penetrate tissue differently, and how they can influence mitochondria, recovery, and performance. Ari also breaks down the confusing part most people miss: device choice and dosing aren’t one-size-fits-all,...

Back in SPI today — wind is up, so it's time for another "Send It Sundays." Little tired, but stoked after giving my talk at the Sports Pharmacy Summit down in Fort Lauderdale. Huge shoutout to Sean Casey and the whole crew for putting on an epic event — y'all crushed it. Had a blast nerding out on HRV and Met Flex, and it was great connecting with so many of you there. Here's what went down this week Newsletters: Cold Water Immersion and Your GainZ: Cold plunges might feel hardcore, but...

Greetings from the Houston airport, Gate C-something, where I am wedged into a chair engineered by a person who has never sat down, surrounded by the ambient perfume of terminal Tex-Mex, and about to fly to Fort Lauderdale to present on HRV and Metabolic Flexibility at the Sports Pharmacy Conference tomorrow morning. The slides are done. The brain needs to cooperate. Which brings me to a story. A glorious, chaotic, extremely on-brand story about what happens when a PhD with no regard for...

Hola from the wind starved and dare I say - moderate temperature Texas coastline where the wind smells like salt, sunscreen, and the slowly evaporating dreams of tourists who underestimated the Gulf. South Padre Island. Again. Yes. Before you say anything — I know. Third email from this sandbar. But hear me out: the kiteboarding here is criminal in the best possible way, and somewhere between a 23-foot air and a bone-rattling kite-slam that rearranged several of my vertebrae in exciting new...

Picture this, you are sitting in a homemade freezer filled with 41F water, cortisol spiking, teeth clattering like a broken jackhammer, and you're proud of yourself. Ok, so that was me before hitting the warm realms of South Padre. Truth be told, I have been subjecting myself to cold water immersion of various degrees when I am home for over 6 years now. Why you ask? Hang on and I will answer that, but first, here is what is actually happening inside your muscles that you just trained if you...

In this episode of the Flex Diet Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Scott Sherr to take a deep dive into methylene blue, mitochondrial function, and where the truth lies between online hype and fear. We talk through how methylene blue acts as a redox cycler in the mitochondria, how dosing differs for mitochondrial support versus antimicrobial use, and why high doses or poorly labeled liquid droppers can cause problems. Dr. Sherr also shares how he’s used methylene blue with athletes for recovery...

Hola from South Padre Island, where guess who has 2 opposable thumbs and hit a 23-foot jump kiteboarding this week? Wahoo! Happy Easter! Here's what went down this week Newsletters: VO₂ max 50 to 59 in 4 months: Build your aerobic engine the right way and you’ll see real gains—like a 9-point VO₂ max jump—while recovery and energy improve before the data even catches up. Do this highly underrated test to determine your recovery capacity: A simple 2-minute heart rate recovery test can reveal...

In this episode of the Flex Diet Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Masha Makeeva a physician specializing in integrative and regenerative medicine, to get a clear, practical breakdown of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). We talk about why HBOT’s biggest benefit may be reducing inflammation, who it can help most, and how to think about protocols — pressure, oxygen concentration, session length, frequency, and total number of sessions —so you’re not comparing totally different approaches. We also...

Wind screaming off the Gulf, sending my kite overhead to fly 18+ feet in the air for over 100 feet and salt in every crevice of my existence. Yep, I am back in my happy place of S Padre TX. In between sessions on the water, my buddy and fellow kiteboarding kook Mike Lakawa and I got into a discussion that I hear very often. Mid-exhaustion, sun-wrecked, probably slightly dehydrated despite the irony of being surrounded by water, we landed on the same problem I keep seeing in coaches and...