In episode 4 of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler is joined by Dr. Mike Zourdos. To begin, they discuss the benefits of exercise for memory and brain health, including the physiological mechanisms driving these benefits. After that, Eric and Mike answer listener questions on topics like weight fluctuations while traveling, the quality of various protein sources, training around lower back injuries, adjusting volume throughout a mesocycle, applying evidence-based concepts as a personal trainer, and much more.
The MASS crew goes live for Office Hours every Wednesday night at 7pm eastern time. Be sure to join us for a future episode!
Time stamps:
0:00 Introduction
1:04 Eric asks Mike about the benefits of exercise for memory and cognition. Mike describes these beneficial effects and some of the mechanisms that drive them.
16:35 Eric answers a question about the “optimal” amino acid profile for dietary protein sources, and shares a paper summarizing the amino acid content of many different protein sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26224750/
22:31 Eric answers a question about feeling “fatter” after traveling from a colder to a much hotter climate, even though calorie intake hasn’t changed. He explains how changes in environment can alter things like plasma volume and total body water in the short term.
27:16 Mike answers a question about using “exercise snacks” and splitting up exercise sessions throughout the day to build aerobic capacity. He discusses how this can be an effective strategy if done appropriately based on someone’s current training level.
35:42 Eric suggests alternative exercises for those with lower back injuries, like unilateral variations, machine-based exercises, and “landmine” variations of common exercises.
42:46 Resistance training and protein intake in older adults; protein timing
51:15 Do low-protein diets promote the loss of excess skin following significant weight loss?
53:44 Should you train around “MRV” (maximum recoverable volume) toward the end of a mesocycle to induce overreaching?
1:01:04 Eric answers a question about consuming a large portion of your daily protein in one meal.
1:03:35 Revisiting resistance training and protein intake in older adults, and discussing observational versus experimental evidence. Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36800504/
1:07:55 Eric and Mike answer a question about how they would use an evidence-based approach to fitness as a trainer at a big box gym.
1:21:23 Congratulating Dr. Helms
1:23:23 Concluding remarks
