In this episode, I sit down with respiratory and sleep scientist Martin McPhilimey to take a deep dive into breathing, CO₂ regulation, and how they actually impact performance, stress, and sleep. We get into why respiratory physiology is way more complex than most people think, how his clinical and research background shaped his approach, and why breathwork exploded during COVID with names like Wim Hof and James Nestor. From there, we dig into allostatic load and why piling on high-stress...
about 17 hours ago • 1 min read
CO2 is not what you think it is. Neither is your pump pre-workout. A few years ago I watched a very fit, very serious athlete fall apart in a repeated sprint test like a luxury sedan losing all four wheels on the freeway. On paper, he looked bulletproof. Strong.Lean.Well-trained.The kind of athlete who makes coaches say stupid things like, “Yeah, he can handle anything.” Except he couldn’t. First 60 sec sprint on the Concept 2 evil rower looked good.Second sprint looked fine.Power at the...
1 day ago • 4 min read
Quick one tonight because the AMA audio series dies at midnight, but you can still hop in https://miket.me/physflex <--full details And before it dies, I need to tell you about the metabolic basement. Most people walk around using two fuels: Glucose and fat. That’s enough to keep the lights on. Enough to get through a normal day, to fake competence, and to survive mediocre training and decent sleep and a life that hasn’t started swinging a bat yet. But downstairs? There are two more systems...
1 day ago • 3 min read
Lactic acid didn’t do it. Your buffering system got mugged. There’s a certain kind of coach I’ve met a thousand times. Good intentions. Solid heart of 14 karat gold. Probably owns at least 3 overpriced recovery gadget and still says “lactic acid” like it’s 1997 and we’re all wearing Zubaz pants in a Gold’s Gym parking lot with his gallon of distilled water. ...but then his athletes starts dying halfway through a brutal set of intervals, and they spit out the same line that’s been passed...
3 days ago • 4 min read
What up you savage? I wanted to take a slight round-a-bout from our technical breakdown to answer a bunch of questions that came in about the Phys Flex Cert… ..and to remind you that the Fast Action Bonus of your 1 hour private call (a legit $250 value) with your truly nerdy here closes tonight, Wed April 22 at midnight PST. Story time as just today a coach named Chris emailed me some solid questions. Then another coach emailed me. Then another one. By the third round, I realized I was...
3 days ago • 7 min read
The fitness internet has the attention span of a caffeinated squirrel with a crypto account full of DOGE coin. A study drops with a huge number and some IG GooRoo between ab shotz and posing in front of his rented fancy car rips that number out of context, sprays it across social media like cheap cologne in a strip mall bathroom, and suddenly every shirtless man with a ring light is telling you the sauna is basically anabolic sorcery. Then the supplement companies arrive followed fast by the...
4 days ago • 6 min read
Aaaah, my buddy Joe Rogan. I will get hate for this but overall I love Joe and his show most of the time… …however, the practice of going ballZ deep at 33F in the ice bath as a recommendation to start is bonkers. This has also spun off a whole slew of “Cold Water BroZ” via the cult of Joe with their own epic posting about their love of cold water immersion after lifting ‘cuz "recovery, bro." Can doing cold water immersion (CWI) immediately after lifting stall your gainZ? Here's what's...
4 days ago • 6 min read
Newsflash Brosefus, your body does not want to add more muscle, run faster, and get leaner all by itself. This is not a motivational failure nor a mindset problem where you just need to biohack your way out or keep trying harder. This is physiology at its most fundamental as your body is designed to survive above everything. A massive part of this survival mechanism is homeostasis, your body's insane, around-the-clock commitment to holding its internal environment constant no matter what you...
5 days ago • 4 min read
Somewhere between the bottom of my triple espresso and the third set of 30-second Wingates, my lungs started doing their best Bill Lumbergh impression. "I'm gonna need you to go ahead and breathe less terribly on Saturday." That's when it hit me that I've been watching something deeply strange happen in fitness coaching for the last two decades…. The programming knowledge, the research literacy, the content quality, the nutritional sophistication — genuinely excellent compared to what existed...
5 days ago • 4 min read