Martin Silva – How Eating More Could Give You The Body You Desire

Watch the full interview below or listen to the full episode on your iPhone HERE.

Stu: This week I’m excited to welcome Martin Silva back to the show. Martin is a transformation coach, award-winning fitness model, public speaker, podcaster, the list goes on. He’s a rare breed in the fitness industry as his focus is geared towards a holistic approach, with longterm health as his main goal. In this episode we talk about the common misconceptions that he experiences time and time again in health and fitness space. We talk about eating more, not less in order to get the body you want, and also dig deeper into recovery, sleep and the importance of routines. Over to Martin…

Audio Version

Questions we ask in this episode:

Get More of Martin Silva

• https://www.instagram.com/martinsilvafitness/
• https://www.facebook.com/Martinsilvafitness/
• https://www.optimiseyourbody.com
• Optimise Your Body With Martin Silva Podcast

If you enjoyed this, then we think you’ll enjoy this interview:

• Kelly Starrett: Deskbound, Ice Baths & Mobility
• Mets Analin – The Biggest Mistakes People Make in the Gym
• Brian Mackenzie: Pushing All Boundaries Of Health & Wellness

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Full Transcript

Stu

(00:00:03):

Hey, this is Stu from 180 nutrition and welcome to another episode of The Health Sessions. It’s here that we connect with the world’s best experts in health, wellness and human performance in an attempt to cut through the confusion around what it actually takes to achieve a long lasting health. Now I’m sure that’s something that we all strive to have, I certainly do. Before we get into the show today, you might not know that we make products too. That’s right. We’re into whole food nutrition and have a range of super foods and natural supplements to help support your diet. If you are curious, want to find out more, just jump over to our website that is 180nutrition.com.au and take a look. Okay back to the show.

(00:00:44):

This week I’m excited to welcome Martin Silva back to the show. Martin is a transformation coach, award-winning fitness model, public speaker, podcaster, the list goes on. He’s a rare breed in the fitness industry as his focus is geared towards a wholistic approach, with longterm health as his main goal. In this episode we talk about the common misconceptions that he experiences time and time again in health and fitness space. We talk about eating more, not less in order to get the body you want. And also dig deeper into recovery, sleep and the importance of routines. Over to Martin.

(00:01:21):

Hey guys, this is Stu from 180 Nutrition and I am delighted to welcome back Martin Silva to the podcast. Martin, thank you so much for coming back on again. How are you mate?

Martin

(00:01:32):

My pleasure. I’m great, thanks Stu.

Stu

(00:01:34):

Well that’s great. Really, really excited to connect with you today. And a couple of reasons obviously to connect with you and dial into all the knowledge that you have accrued over the years in your industry. But secondly to welcome and introduce and announce you as an ambassador to 180 Nutrition. And so thank you so much for coming on board with us. And just to give our listeners a little bit of a heads up, particularly interested in connecting with you because of a number of things that you do. Obviously you’re into personal training and wholistic movement, but at a much deeper level than I see lots of other people doing it. And I’m very interested in anybody who talks about sleep and mindset and motivation as well as nutrition and movement and all the other habits out there as well.

Stu

(00:02:28):

And you apply that to yourself and your clients with a very holistic and natural route, which I think is super rare in the industry, that is tainted with toxic messages and less than authentic supplementation and substances and things like that. So really keen to welcome you onboard. Thanks for sharing some time this morning. But for anyone out there that hasn’t heard of you before, it would be great for you just to tell us a little bit about yourself too.

Martin

(00:02:59):

Sure. Firstly, thank you for welcoming me on board. And it’s an absolute pleasure, once again, the pleasure’s all mine Stu. And yeah, just a little bit more about my background. So where do I start with this? So in terms of personal training, I have been doing this for almost 15 years now. Always juggling a few things. Doing the online coaching, I’ve been doing that so I’ve got a handful of people I coach online. I’ve been doing that for over five years now as well. But just to track back to when I first qualified as a trainer, back when I was like 19 years old. And prior to that I was always competitive, always play in sports from a young age, always had that competitive nature. But when I first started lifting weights properly and consistently, I first picked up a dumbbell when I was about 14 and I got really consistent with it from the age of around about 16.

(00:03:53):

And I never looked back really. I fell in love with it and it was transferred over to my rugby as well, because I was playing rugby at the time. And it just became my passion then and as I said, by three years later, then by the age of 19 I was a qualified personal trainer. So been doing it for a while and eventually then I got into bodybuilding as well. So I’m a pro level natural bodybuilder, although I’ve competed in Federation, I’ve never actually competed in a natural Federation. So just to verify that I’ve always competed in IFBB or WBFF and then non-tested Federation. So, because I put so much work into lifting weights and into essentially training and exercise over the years, and genetics play a part in that as well I’m not going to deny that. I can compete against the best in the world, people who are taking stuff, performance enhancing stuff, ie steroids, I’ll just say the word don’t know why I’m swerving around [inaudible 00:04:54].

Stu

(00:04:54):

That’s true.

Martin

(00:04:56):

It is what it is isn’t it?

Stu

(00:04:57):

It is what it is.

Martin

(00:04:58):

Yeah, yeah. But no, I’ve coached hundreds of people as a trainer, maybe even over a thousand people if I include the people I’ve coached online as well over the last say, five, six years. And it was actually around about six, seven years ago I first stepped on the stage as a men’s physique competitor as well. So yeah, I pretty much live, breathe and eat health and fitness. But I think the important turning point I think I should bring up for the listeners is, my paradigm shifted again around about four or five years ago, when just before I turned pro as a bodybuilder say 2014, 2015. I started applying myself Stu and started educating myself. And learning from people like yourself with a similar mindset in terms of focusing on health, making health a priority. I developed a bit of an eating disorder. I’m trying to make this quite short Stu my life story would be quite long otherwise, you know what I mean?

Stu

(00:05:53):

No, that’s-

Martin

(00:05:54):

[inaudible 00:05:54] and you look it’s like 45 minutes.

Stu

(00:05:56):

Yeah. Thanks so much, we’ll speak to you again.

Martin

(00:06:01):

Exactly. Job done. But no, as I was saying, just I began to focus on health, making health a priority instead of being driven by aesthetics. There probably was an underlying reason why I started lifting weights as well. The main reason was because my friend asked me to go to the gym with him, and it was like my mate was going so I joined him. But when you start building, I was quite a late kind of bloomer when it comes to puberty and stuff. Right? So when I was 16, I had amazing response. I think I was behind, but my testosterone at that age you’re nat-steroids, right? And in 15, 16-

Stu

(00:06:39):

Yeah, body is ready.

Martin

(00:06:40):

Exactly body’s ready. So I hit the sweet spot and then I continued and as I say, I was then, the underlying reason was probably partly insecurities. I think a lot of guys don’t talk about this, but I was a skinny kid growing up much like yourself Stu, right?

Stu

(00:06:55):

Yep. Yep. Totally.

Martin

(00:06:56):

That’s how it is.

Stu

(00:06:57):

Yeah, absolutely.

Martin

(00:06:58):

I was a skinny kid. I was kind of medium in school. I was kind of in between. I wasn’t very popular, but I was like I said, tall and skinny. And then when I started building muscle and I got hooked and I loved the way it made me feel. And like I said, it carried over into rugby. But then what happens then is when you start competing Stu, and you step on stage and you start getting your body compared, to other physiques and a lot of them not natural physiques and you’re straight away off the back, getting told what you need to work on, what muscles are kind of not well-developed and what you need to bring up in terms of your aesthetic. And then if anything that kind of sends you deeper into that rabbit hole of being driven by aesthetics.

(00:07:43):

And then as a result of not knowing what I was doing Stu, when I first started competing, I was restricting food sources, lots of nutrients. I was unnecessarily taking loads of foods out of my diet because all I knew was, what the other bodybuilders around me were telling me, none of it was based on science. And then I developed a little bit of an eating disorder. I say a little bit, it was essentially the binge eating disorder, which I battled with for about a year or two years, both on and off the stage as a result of essentially depriving my body in a way which, it’s never healthy competing any way. You’re taking your body into a place where it’s not good for your health anyway, but when you’re doing it in a way which is not based on science and you’re cutting nutrients out your food, what’s going to happen then Stu is you’re going to rebound. When you get a chance to eat food your body, all your hormones will wail out of whack, which I can talk a bit more about later.

(00:08:38):

But your leptin for example, just for the listeners, the hunger hormone leptin.

Stu

(00:08:43):

Yep.

Martin

(00:08:44):

Is through the roof when you’re in a prolonged calorie deficit like that for a show especially. And lectin, which is the, sorry the other way around. Ghrelin, the hunger hormone is through the roof and leptin, which is the hormone which tells you you’re full is depleted.

Stu

(00:09:00):

Yes.

Martin

(00:09:00):

So then your hormones are all out of whack. And if you go binge in after a show mate, it’s hard to hit that off button. And then as I sat down, I started educating myself more and eventually them, I made health my priority and here we are Stu. Here we are.

Stu

(00:09:13):

Brilliant. So fantastic. So, to put some perspective into this, if you’re listening to this, you can also jump onto YouTube and you can watch our conversation because we post it on there as well. But I would present the listeners with an opportunity to jump on the phone or jump onto Google, and just type in Martin Silver fitness and hit the Google image buttons, and see the images that come up. Because you’ll be shocked in terms of… You’ll see a whole presentation of images that essentially are a men’s health cover physique. And I look at that as an absolute science. So for anybody out there that’s saying, “Well, hold on a minute, I’m a 45-year-old female, mum of three and I just want to lose a few pounds. Why should I listen to this?” Well, I would say, why don’t you listen to the scientists? Why don’t you listen to the person who really, really can walk the talk, et cetera? Who has done it. Who understands the finite science behind increasing muscle while reducing body fat, but doing it from a perspective of longterm health as a goal.

Stu

(00:10:35):

And understands that all of the areas that you need to work on to be able to make that happen. So, certainly we’re not saying, “Everybody look at Martin Silva, we’re going to get ripped.” We’re saying this is what’s possible when you take all of this information and you dial it down to such a fine laser point that that is possible. Because for 99.9% of the population, what you’ve achieved is impossible. And so congratulations for that. I look at that and think, “Oh my word. I want some of that. How is that possible?” So I’m really, really keen for people to jump on board and see, “Right, okay. So this guy, he’s been in the industry most of his life. The achievements that he has made have been profound.” And yet you’re in a day to day battle with your clients who are coming in and they’re wanting to shape up, they’re wanting to transform their bodies in some way, shape or form, whether it’s for vanity, whether it’s for longterm health, whether they just want to get stronger and fitter and healthier.

(00:11:41):

So keen to dial into some of these industry misconceptions because you’re coming through, almost into the battlefields every single day. And you’re presented with all manner of different types of body shapes, people that are in very different stages of their life in terms of fitness, health and goals as well. Are there any big misconceptions that just jump out at you, as being the most common that you have to tackle?

Martin

(00:12:13):

Yeah, yeah. There’s quite a few. There’s quite a few. And I guess to start with, if we’re talking about… Because obviously the answer always is Stu, as you, I think I’ve heard you say is it depends, right?

Stu

(00:12:22):

Yeah.

Martin

(00:12:23):

It depends who we’re talking to. So if we, to answer your question in terms of my personal training clients, right? So over say the last 14, 15 years, as I said, I’ve coached hundreds of people, and about 90% of them are just everyday people. So a lot of people listening to this, I’ve coached people just like yourself, right?

Stu

(00:12:42):

Yeah. Yep.

Martin

(00:12:42):

And I think the biggest misconception when it comes to training is, there’s so many, but I think the main one is, people think that you have to go balls to wall, right? And train like a mad person to get good results, right?

Stu

(00:12:57):

Right.

Martin

(00:12:58):

So for most people, again, I’ll also take a little bit of a diversion and go the other way. But for most people, less is more. Because people who, especially the on or off wagon mentality, right?

Stu

(00:13:12):

Yeah.

Martin

(00:13:12):

So when we’re talking to most people, a lot of people can’t really sustain because we haven’t… When it comes to weight loss and fat loss Stu, we haven’t got a weight loss problem. People think, “We’ve got an obesity epidemic and…” It’s not weight loss as the problem, right? Although it is for some people, it’s keeping their weight off, right? If we look at the stats, 90% of people, if not more, will lose a significant amount of weight in their lifetime, only to gain it back and some, right?

Stu

(00:13:41):

Yes,.

Martin

(00:13:41):

And what happens is, I can kind of switch this over to an example of my competition. When I did my competition, I did one in October, I had three or four years out of competing. Competing in October, brought one of my best physiques to the stage. But what I did notice was, because of the binge and eating episodes that I’ve had before in the past, this is the ninth time I’ve competed, right? And about four of those I’ve done in a healthier manner. But the first five or so when I was restricting food, hammering my body, again, doing way too much. Less is more. I was doing too much even for a show. And then what happened was your body is primed to store fat, right? So once you’ve got a competition, right? Or if your average person listening to this, once you brought your body fat down to a certain level and you’ve done let’s say than, three or four weeks of a specific type of training and you’ve being restricting your calories.

(00:14:32):

What happens then is when you start… If you haven’t changed any behaviors, which I’ll come to next, the fundamental behaviors such as increasing your activity levels, focusing on good sleep, eating whole foods for the most. If you haven’t, and within four weeks by the way, you’re not going to made any significant permanent changes.

Stu

(00:14:51):

Right.

Martin

(00:14:51):

And what happens then after that is your body is primed to store fat, right? So essentially every time you lose weight and gain it back, your body gets better and better at storing fat. Right? And the same goes the other way as well. When you get lean and if you do it a healthy way, where you can sustain it. What happens then as your body, as you get better again leaner, it becomes better at metabolizing fat and so on and so forth. So I think to specify now with the question, the main thing is restricting, right? I’ll say number one is the restrictive mentality. So the best results I get with people Stu, when it comes to longterm results, losing body fat, building muscle, improving overall health, better longevity, all those things. Instead of restricting, right? I add foods to their diet that they’re missing out on. And let me say to you, everyone, including myself, right? It’s, you know what it’s like Stu, you’ll be learning about nutrition until the day you die, right?

Stu

(00:15:49):

Of course.

Martin

(00:15:49):

It’s a never ending, human metabolism is the, next to the human brain it’s the second most complex thing on the planet, right? They still have no idea what’s going on basically, right? So you have to live for yourself, did you?

Stu

(00:16:02):

Yeah. Oh totally. And the fact I think that the diversity of your gut and your metabolism is continually changing as well. What worked for you a year ago, may be radically different today.

Martin

(00:16:11):

Exactly. Exactly. So everyone while I was trying to say is, everyone is missing out on something, whether that’s not having adequate protein, fiber is a big one. You’ll know this, Stu. Fiber and micronutrients, right? Shameless plug here. Right?

Stu

(00:16:28):

Yeah.

Martin

(00:16:29):

Obviously for example, you have your greens plus one. I’m not trying to directly, all I’m saying is like for example, it’s very, very hard even for someone like me, to get all of the plant based foods, just using fiber as an example, to get all the plant based foods into your body. Right? Which is why I use your supplements to bump up those micronutrients, get the fiber in. And that’s a big one. So most people are missing out on say let’s say protein, fiber, healthy types of fats. That’s a huge one. A lot of people their balance of the fat ratio is well out of whack. So most people are not having enough Omega-3 fatty acids and too much Omega-9, sorry Omega-6’s and whatnot. And just generally not having enough of the mono and polyunsaturated fats like nuts, avocado, seeds, olive oil, those kinds of things people are missing out on.

(00:17:18):

So what I do Stu is I’ll add foods. I’ll add foods they’re missing out on. I won’t say cut anything out. I’ll tell them, “Don’t try and impress me.” For example, if I get someone to start tracking their food intake, which I do a lot.

Stu

(00:17:32):

Yep.

Martin

(00:17:33):

I’ll say, “Don’t try and impress me. Don’t try and cut things back. I want to see how you eat normally so I can see what we can improve on.” Right.

Stu

(00:17:39):

Just be honest.

Martin

(00:17:40):

And then I’ll start adding foods. Exactly mate. The big one is vegetables. That’s normally the number one, Stu.

Stu

(00:17:43):

Yeah.

Martin

(00:17:44):

Right. You’re missing out on vegetables. You’re not getting enough in, less add some vegetables. And let’s be consistent with that Stu. Imagine I’m talking to you now, “Stuart, let’s be consistent with that and see how we go.” Once I’ve seen a few consistent weeks, that’s great. You’re hitting more fiber now. You’re getting more micronutrients in. “Oh, let’s have a look at your protein. Right? Okay. Yeah, you could do it a bit more.” And the main thing is Stuart, when people are looking to lose body fat and build muscle, the protein is obviously an essential macronutrient. You’d die without it. Same goes with fat. Whereas carbohydrates you can live without.

Stu

(00:18:15):

Yep.

Martin

(00:18:15):

A whole another conversation. But with protein it blends appetite. So if someone’s listening to this is trying to get leaner and leaner, the main thing is, it blends your appetite, it stops you. And what it does as well is it speeds your metabolism up a bit as well. So it has a high thermic effect, much like vegetables. So that’s another one. I think that’s the most common misconception I think is the nutrition elements, Stu. And it’s people trying to restrict, pull everything out of their diet and then they’re just back to square one again, if not worse.

Stu

(00:18:45):

Totally. Totally. And I get that. I pull that to the other extreme. I’ve got three daughters and oftentimes, for instance, earlier on this week, one of my daughters said, “I’m hungry.” Just before we went to school and I said, “What’d you have for breakfast?” And she told me and I said, “Well where’s your protein? Where’s your fat?” Of course you’re going to be hungry. You’ve got nothing there to fill you up.

Martin

(00:19:03):

Yeah. Exactly.

Stu

(00:19:08):

How do you typically track what your clients are eating? Have you got preferred method?

Martin

(00:19:14):

Yeah, so what I’ll do is I’ll generally get them tracking using an app, the MyFitnessPal app.

Stu

(00:19:20):

Yes. I do know that. I do, you know what, I’ve got a mini story about that. It was fascinating because I am super lean, always been lean. What do they call it? A hard gainer. Can’t put on any weight, if I tried. But I’m very active. I’m very active. I never stop.

Martin

(00:19:38):

How many steps you do a day, Stu? Just curious, roughly average.

Stu

(00:19:42):

Yeah. Now the story there. Yeah. I would, 10 to 20,000 probably. Within that range. Not that the 10,000 steps-

Martin

(00:19:55):

How again I mean that’s more than enough, aint it?

Stu

(00:19:57):

Well this is the thing. So I thought, you know what, I’ve never counted a calorie in my life but I’m intrigued to see how much I’m actually eating when I put it all together, because a huge amount, like a huge amount. And I’m not talking huge bowls of salad. Lots of protein, a truckload of fats, lots of starchy carbohydrates, just lots of calories over lots of meals. And I do have quite an appetite continually. And so I thought, “Well I’m going to use this MyFitnessPal app, and I’m just going to track to see what I am actually eating over the course of the day because I’ve never done it, ever. And it said, “Well what’s your goal?” And I said, “Well I’d like to put on a little bit of weight.” Because I like to do some ocean swimming and I get cold in the ocean because I’m lean. So a little bit of body fat will be quite nice.

Martin

(00:20:48):

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Stu

(00:20:49):

So it said, “Well, you need to consume an extra 500 calories a day.” And I’m thinking, “Easy. I can do that with a smoothie, with some avocados and some coconut crane bang.”

Martin

(00:20:57):

Piece of cake. Piece of cake.

Stu

(00:20:58):

Got that one done. And so I tracked for the best part of the week, everything that I ate and I was 500 calories below, where I needed to be every single day and I couldn’t possibly anymore. And I just realized it was because I don’t stop. I’m active and I’m burning just as much as I’m consuming all the time. And so after looking at it, I thought, “Well, you know what? I don’t want to stop what I’m doing because I like to move. I feel good when I’m moving. And I actually don’t want to overfeed anymore and I’d struggle to include even more fat and more calories into my day. So then I’m just going to be happy with what I’ve got.

Martin

(00:21:41):

I tell you what a winner is for me, Stu. I posted this on my story. You might’ve seen it, you know the coconut cream [crosstalk 00:00:21:45].

Stu

(00:21:46):

Yes. Yeah.

Martin

(00:21:47):

Stu like this is a whole another conversation. But since my show in October, right?

Stu

(00:21:51):

Yeah.

Martin

(00:21:51):

I reversed dieted out of it. Right? So just to sum it up for the listeners, reverse dieting is when you slowly build your calories back up, right? Because you’ve cut your calories for such a long period. As I was saying earlier, the worst thing you can do when you’ve done a competition or even if you’re getting lean for a wedding, or I can relate this to anyone. You don’t want to, which is what most people do by the way, feeds slightly more. Most people do, right? Or a couple of something. And then they’ll start eating all the crap foods they’ve cut out. Right? To my point. And then, boom, it was the worst thing you can do. But since my shows Stu, right? So onstage I weighed around about 87 kilos. Right?

Stu

(00:22:27):

Right.

Martin

(00:22:28):

And right now I’m 89 kilos, right? This is three, four months ago. I’m two kilos heavier and I have not been able to gain that weight back. My metabolism is roaring harder than it ever has in my life. And I eat each day, I’m averaging like 3,600 calories. So my maintenance calories, there and about 3,700 calories. Stu, what do you do intimate and fasting, right? I feel good in the mornings when I’m fasted. Right?

Stu

(00:22:54):

Yeah.

Martin

(00:22:54):

So like I said, I have clients say from 6:00 AM in the mornings when I coach people as a personal trainer. If I eat before that Stu, I feel terrible. So I have to fast in the mornings and then it’s like I’ve got a window to get 3,600 calories in. So I’m like neck in in tins of coconut cream, eating raw eggs, and all sorts.

Stu

(00:23:13):

Yeah. And it’s amazing. The way the body adapts and adjusts as you change your diet. And as we age as well, I’ve just come back from a holiday in Fiji and that for me is an opportunity to really enjoy lots of really good food. Namely like buffet style food. So I’ll go in there and it’s just like, “Oh my word.” You’re presenting me with a whole reef fish and all of these amazing, beautiful starchy Fijian vegetables like taro. And I just, I love all that. And I’ll have plate after plate because I struggle with an off switch too. But I went to a Fiji, I mean I’m just shy under six feet tall and I went to Fiji, I was like 72 kilos. So there’s

Martin

(00:24:00):

Not a lot to me. Not a lot to me.

Stu

(00:24:00):

No, not at all. Of course they’re listening to this now and they’re like, for most people say, do you want to get lean or wherever it is or try a certain goals and they’re like, you buggers. I can’t believe you’re saying, it’s the best problem in the world to have. I don’t mean to brag, but-

Martin

(00:24:17):

Unless you really want to buck up. And I went game on and I switched my smoothies that I have every morning for breakfast to full fried breakfast with three eggs, two sausages, a plate of bacon and potatoes they have. And they’ve got all this amazing stuff. And I did that. I was eating six meals a day. Really, really putting on, came back and I did jump on the scales now. I don’t weigh myself, but only in this kind of holiday scenario where I’m trying to put on a few kilos. Came back after gorging myself for a couple of weeks, 70 kilos.

(00:24:51):

70 kilos? Really? Oh my God. How much movement were you doing when you’re away? Do you know roughly if you had a guess, steps were you doing less or?

Stu

(00:25:01):

Oh crikey, I didn’t stop.

Martin

(00:25:04):

All in all, you didn’t stop, yeah. [crosstalk 00:25:06]

Stu

(00:25:07):

I literally didn’t stop. I wouldn’t sit down on the beach, I’m swimming and surfing-

Martin

(00:25:14):

I’m the same. Exactly.

Stu

(00:25:17):

I literally don’t stop.

Martin

(00:25:17):

But Stu, I wanted to say as well, you’re talking about misconceptions just before I forget. Yeah, sorry to-

Stu

(00:25:23):

No, no. All good.

Martin

(00:25:24):

The backtrack a bit. But when it comes to training as well, so I guess when we’re looking at the big rocks Stu right, let’s look at the big rocks. Nutrition. As I say, people try to restrict, they try and change too much. And in reality, the best method for most people is to add home more whole foods because most people are missing out. Everyone is missing out on some sort of a nutrient or macronutrient, micronutrient, whatever it is.

(00:25:49):

The second thing is training programming. And this is in no particular order, people don’t place enough value on a proper training program. We talked about this on the last podcast, but making strength training or building muscle a priority is essential for you to build muscle obviously, and to build your metabolism, longevity, bone density, heart health.

(00:26:17):

It’s not just for what you do for your metabolism and losing body fat. It’s actually overall health. And in fact studies have shown that actually lifting weights is more beneficial for the heart than cardio. Let’s clarify that one. There’s two different types of fat which build up around the heart, one of them is, I think, pericardial fat and the other one begins with an E. But both cardio and weight training reduced one type, the one that begins with E, reduced that type of fat. But only weight training reduced the pericardial fat around the heart, only resistance training. They’ve proven actually, resistance training is better for the heart. Mental health. I could talk about that forever in terms of the health benefits. But when we talk about our stacks and getting in shape physically a proper training program is paramount.

(00:27:03):

Focusing on lifting weights properly and it relates to what I was saying really. Setting realistic goals. If you’re going from, lets just say, after Christmas for example. A lot of people hit the off button. Don’t train as much. I think your audience is a bit different. I’m sure a lot of them still train and stuff. You know what it’s like social events, puts you out of whack a bit and then people get to January and they’re like, that’s it now. I am going hell for leather. I’m going to train five, six times per week, balls to wall, as I said. And what happens then is again, overnight, the studies show this as well. Over 90% of people will fade off. If you set realistic goals and say, right, I’m going to do two to three purposeful, weight train in sessions per week.

(00:27:47):

Much like yourself Stu, because I know you, your regime is at least two or three.

Stu

(00:27:51):

I do three. Yeah. Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Martin

(00:27:54):

There we go. Perfect. Perfect. And that’s what I’m doing now actually. And just doing purposeful weight training sessions, focusing on technique. And most people, again, too intense when they train, not focusing enough on the mechanics and the technique of the movements, which is going to get you bad bang for your buck and doing too much. Doing five, six sessions per week and you know, again, over 90% percent of people, you’re just not going to sustain that. Time and time again, in terms of clients I’ve trained, the client who could be consistent with two training sessions every single week, will get by far superior results to the person who was going five, six times per week for a holiday or a wedding only to hit the off button and go back to the old behaviors in the week back and then start all over again.

(00:28:40):

And that second example I use, is most people, place value on training programming. Either get yourself a trainer or get a good training program. Follow a good training program, which is specific to what you’re trying to achieve really, Stu.

Stu (00:28:54):

Excellent.

Martin

(00:28:55):

And sleep is the next one, Stu. You can talk to us about sleep.

Stu

(00:28:59):

Yeah, absolutely. And yes I can-

Martin

(00:29:01):

Not valuing that enough, people don’t value that.

Stu

(00:29:02):

And I’d love to. On the muscle topic as well. I heard a great quote the other day and it was that muscle is the organ of longevity. And that really resonated with me because the conversations that I’ve had with a lot of the professionals in the health space over the years on the podcast, has been a shift from cardio to resistance based training for overall health and longevity. Your perspective on cardio versus weight training, for somebody that comes in that is an average Joe like myself, that’s maybe carrying a few extra pounds, just wants to be healthy, but doesn’t know where to start. What would you say? Because typically you’d go, all right, I’m going to go in there. I might just jump on the exercise bike or the treadmill, or I might just, you know, the stair climber and I’m going to burn those calories off that way.

(00:30:02):

Is that worthwhile?

Martin

(00:30:03):

That’s a very, very good point. And again, it depends on the person. But most people, again, we’re talking to most people, this is probably 78% of people anyway that come to me. They’re not moving enough. That’s a big one. I would say, out of all the habits I get them to implement, that is the biggest game changer. And what we’ll communicate to them is, when you come to the gym and, most people again, they’ll think, go to the gym, do cardio, just like you said, burn calories. And what happens is, when you come to the gym and you’d go for a walk on the treadmill or you do the cross trainer or whatever, let’s just say you spend an hour doing cardio.

(00:30:42):

Roughly for give or take, for about 5% of your day, you burn some calories, and that’s great. You’ve manually burnt calories. That’s what you’re doing when you’re doing cardio, it’s allocated, you’re manually getting your body to burn calories. Now the beauty of resistance training is just to keep lean muscle tissue on your body, it costs your body a lot of calories. Your body is then automatically burning more calories. And that’s to your point, I like what you said then, what did you call it? The organ, the muscle?

Stu

(00:31:16):

Muscle is the organ of longevity.

Martin

(00:31:18):

The organ of longevity. And that’s exactly what it is. And also strength as well. Strength and muscle and I think strength, arguably, obviously they go hand in hand. There’s been more studies done on that. And actually people, they do well on the dynamometer test, where you have to squeeze a machine. Strength is huge for longevity. But going back to what we were saying, your body then, will automatically be burning more calories if you focus on building muscle.

(00:31:48):

Going back to what I was saying about cardio, let’s just say you’ve burned some calories in the gym for an hour, 5% of your day you burn more calories. Now the beauty of lifting weights is for, well 10 to 12 hours after you’ve lifted weights. Well, basically 24 to 72 hours after, your metabolism’s elevated because there’s an operation taking place called muscle protein synthesis. But, for 10 to 12 hours after, generally, your body is really trying to repair and recover, and all the rest of it, the damage and whatnot.

(00:32:20):

Your metabolism then, is roaring, it’s really boosted, it’s elevated, it’s supercharged for say 10 to 12 hours, post lifting weights. For about 50% of your day, you’re burning more calories as opposed to 5% of your day. You see?

Stu

(00:32:35):

Yeah.

Martin

(00:32:35):

That’s an analogy I like to use. But also, going back to muscle tissue. Another simple analogy I like to use is, muscle tissue is expensive. It costs your body a lot of calories. I’ll just say that one more time. Muscle tissue, just to keep it on your body, it costs your body a lot of calories. It’s expensive tissue, a pound of lean muscle will burn, give or take say 13, one, three, to around about 30 calories. Again, depending on the person. 30 calories, extra a day, your body will burn, just to keep that muscle tissue on your body, by you not doing any extra.

(00:33:13):

Okay, let’s just say you built five pounds of muscle, over X amount of time. It doesn’t sound like much, but 150 calories a day, your body’s burning by you doing no extra whatsoever. And that’s partly why people like me, your you Stu, we’re hard gainers. Naturally, we move a lot as well, which is the big one, but we’ve got a lot of muscle mass as well. I think my muscle mass is around about 78, I weigh about 90 kilos. I’ve got about 77 or 78 kilos of lean body tissue.

Stu

(00:33:42):

Wow.

Martin

(00:33:43):

Going back to what I was seeing then, 30 calories per pounds, my body’s burning a ridiculous amount of calories just to keep that muscle on my body. If that explains that one. I hope that was kind of-

Stu

(00:33:53):

No, no. It was interesting, because I think typically the perception is that it’s just as simple as a calories in, calories out discussion where I want to burn five kilos of fat and so I’m just going to sit on the treadmill for an hour a day, every single day, until that fat’s gone.

(00:34:14):

And like you said, when you actually change the equation by throwing in muscle into the picture, and all of the processes that occur when you build muscle and when you rotate retain muscle as well, then that throws a bit of a curve ball into that thought process.

Martin

(00:34:31):

100% and I think the activity’s a big one Stu. People still look at me as if I’m mad when I say, walk more. And if you can do a 20 minute walk even, every day. If you get up in the morning and you used to sitting down and doing whatever you got to do, checking emails, blah blah. How about you try and get up like 20 minutes earlier and just go for a walk, or in the evening, once you’ve had your evening meal, go for a 20 minute walk. Because as you know Stu, really good for digestion. Certain studies have shown that it’s actually really good for you to walk after you’ve eaten anyway. I’ll try and implement habits like that. When it comes to fat loss Stu, and the average person, moving more. Because most people, Stu, they’re sat down most of the day. It’s a sedentary world we live in now. I think you said to me off air the other day, we’re going back to, I can’t remember what you said now.

Stu

(00:35:23):

Yeah, we’re defaulting.

Martin

(00:35:23):

Defaulting. That’s exactly it.

Stu

(00:35:24):

Yeah. We are. And walking after a meal is a great strategy specifically for digestion as well. And there is a Chinese proverb that talks about, I think it’s a thousand steps after eating or something along those lines, but I do that after every meal. We’ll literally go around the block for 20 minutes or so. And I’ve found that that’s been really good for sleep as well. It’s just another little dial that you can squeeze a little bit to get better quality sleep, for me. And it’s just optimizing your digestion. So yeah, definitely.

Martin

(00:35:56):

100%. Five to 15 minutes. It’s about what I do as well. While I was speaking to you on the phone the other day, Stu, people thought I was crazy. I was out the back, just pacing up and down, letting my food digest.

Stu

(00:36:02):

Yeah. That’s right. We think that we need to sit down to have a meeting. We think that we need to sit down to meet our friends, in a cafe scenario, have a good chat. Well, we could get takeaway cup of coffee, go for a walk and chat. We could plug our earphones in and walk and talk when we have our meetings.

Martin

(00:36:25):

That’s such a good point you, Stu. And I’m glad you said that because that is one of the main things I’ll do. I’ll see. Let’s face it, like most people, the average person committed to 20 minutes walk a day, every single day doesn’t sound like much. For someone who’s going from nothing, it’s a lot to sustain. Even three of those a week I’m happy with. But just like you said then, getting up, walking when you’re on your phone.

(00:36:45):

And using my girlfriend as an example. I’m like, your friends actually doing her first a bikini competition in July. And she’s a lawyer, obviously her job is sedentary, she’s sat at her computer most of the day. And she has gone, from when I met her, from doing less than 4000 steps a day, to averaging 12 to 15000 steps a day by doing exactly what you said. She has a phone call, she gets up and walks, she eats her lunch break, every single chance she gets, she moves. And the results she’s had. I think fat loss and weight loss is a side effect. You start connecting to the fact that actually I feel amazing when I do this, I feel much better anyway.

Stu

(00:37:21):

Yeah. Absolutely right. It is. It just comes as consequence when you do start to move and just introduce these healthy habits. And the more you do it, the more habitual it comes. It’s just automatic. And you want to be there, you want to be doing that stuff.

Martin

(00:37:36):

100%.

Stu

(00:37:37):

Okay. No, it’s brilliant. Fantastic. We’ve spoken about some misconceptions in there. The importance of building muscle and then also the importance of not being restrictive on the foods, but the possibility of tracking and then including more healthy foods in there, which could help satiate you, keep you full throughout the day. And if you’re full, you’re going to make less processed snacky options. You’re going to have better blood sugar as well, you’re going to feel a little bit more stable.

Stu

(00:38:13):

What other pillars do you find that people typically fall back on when they’re trying to build a better, stronger, healthier body? And I’m talking about things like, I’m not recovering enough, not getting proper restorative sleep and maybe being trapped in a mindset that isn’t leading them in the right place.

Martin

(00:38:36):

Mm. That’s a big one. I think we have to mention that one, Stu. And I want to bounce the other pillar in terms of sleep back to you a little bit. Because I love the newsletter or blog you sent out the other day. And you were saying about the blue light blockers and preparing yourself for a good sleep, Stu.

(00:38:52):

Just talk to us about the benefits you’ve had, Stu, because this is, as we said off air, it’s the foundation. And without good sleep and people think that sleep is something that just happens, it’s not. It’s just like exercise and nutrition, it takes discipline. You have to prepare yourself for a good sleep, Stu.

Stu

(00:39:09):

Absolutely. Yeah. I look at it as a muscle, and it’s a muscle that requires work, But when you build it up and it’s strong, it will support you in ways that you’ve never thought possible in terms of being far more cognitive. Brain fog, we all suffered brain fog, especially when we’ve been on a flight and we got some jet lag and we just can’t remember where our keys are. We can’t remember why we walked into a room, things like that. And poor diet choices, the inability to want to do anything because we feel so knackered.

(00:39:42):

I have a sleep routine, and the majority of the people I know think I’m a lunatic.

Martin

(00:39:49):

Same.

Stu

(00:39:49):

But, I do it because I’ve went through a period of my life where my sleep went and I blew my adrenals out. And I think we’ve spoke about this before, where I got into this exercise routine and mixed up my diet, got my programming wrong, my adrenals crashed. 10 o’clock at night, I just felt wired when I should have felt rested and I woke consistently throughout the night, and just felt terrible for probably the best part of the year.

(00:40:21):

My routine now encompasses a whole heap of different things in terms of the type of food I eat and the timing of my meal. I’ll always try and have more of a fat and protein dominant meal for my dinner, for my evening meal. And I’ll try and consume that meal before about seven o’clock, because I typically go to bed between 10:00 and 10:30. And I try and make sure that I’ve had a good feed three hours before I get into bed and I track my sleep with an aura ring. I know that if I eat later, my resting heart rate doesn’t drop as quickly as it should do and that impedes deep sleep. And deep sleep’s super important for restoration processes, switching on all of the detox and the repair processes of the body. And so I’ll always ensure that I eat three hours prior. Bedroom has to be dark, super dark, you can’t see your hand in front of your face, dark, for me. It needs to be cool bordering on cold.

Martin

(00:41:33):

How do you get around that one? Let me stop you on the cold one, living in Australia. Have you got an air con or how do you do it?

Stu

(00:41:39):

We have a fan in the bedroom. We have air con in the living room, not in the bedrooms. I don’t use it. I don’t really like air con. I like to open windows and get fresh air.

(00:41:49):

Yeah, same.

(00:41:50):

I have a fan in the bedroom. I don’t want to paint a gruesome picture in your listeners eyes, but I don’t like to sleep with anything on. I put the fan on, half speed and generally, I’ll have a sheet at most over me. And that will, from a body temperature perspective, I get better quality sleep when my body temperature is lower, and again tracked by the aura ring. I just use that fan. And there are other hacks as well. I mean I’ve got an infrared sauna and I use cold showers so I mess with my body temperature that way.

(00:42:31):

I will, of an evening, go into a sauna for 30 minutes at 60 degrees and then I’ll come out and have a cold shower. Now, obviously that’s extreme, but typically you can have a cold shower before you go into bed for a couple of minutes, minute even, will change your body temperature. And then when your body temperature is coming back to its optimal temperature, you’ll find that that will help you with your sleep as well. But typically, it’s a fan, for me, and that just that works a treat.

(00:43:01):

And then noise, I became a really light sleeper when I had kids. I use earplugs now and I use the pliable putty-like earplugs, like soft gel and I just plug in my ears. I can’t hear a thing. Nothing wakes me up. If I’m traveling, of which I am frequently with work, I’ll take an eye patch with me because you go into a hotel room and you’ve got all these flushing standby lights and curtains are always really weak. The room’s never dark, I’ll use that as well.

(00:43:37):

I don’t drink fluids, I don’t go too crazy on the fluids before bed. I just try and ease off those before around 7:00 PM, because I don’t want to get up in the night and go to the toilet. And I just want to sleep through the night.

Martin

(00:43:50):

Same, yeah. At least an hour before, I try and cut the fluids off.

Stu

(00:43:52):

Yeah. That’s the sleepy stuff. And then prior to going to bed, I will disconnect from social media around seven o’clock. I’ll use night-shift on the iPhone, I’ll use flux on the computer, which are blue light blocking apps. I wear blue light blocking glasses, always. And I’ll try and switch off the thinking brain. And I think Tim Ferriss calls it visual overwriting. You’ve got this monkey chatter that goes on and I’ll try and switch that off either by reading a book, listening to a podcast or watching some trash TV, something that just switches your brain off.

(00:44:41):

Running a business, you always got stuff going on in the back of your mind, got to do this, got to do that. And you just get caught into this endless cycle of thoughts, and so the reading definitely helps and podcasts, Netflix, all that kind of stuff. And then that generally, if I’ve done enough exercise and movement in the day will give me a good night’s sleep with lots of REM sleep, lots of deep sleep, hopefully not too much awake time. And I’ll wake up and I’ll feel pretty good. Now those nights that I have trained in the morning, lifted weights, always give me better quality sleep, bar none and they just do. And so what you were saying about the effects of lifting weights 12, 24, 36 hours posts, there is an effect that it has on sleep as well. That is quite noticeable compared to say cardio day. Lifting weights does have a bigger impact on that as well.

Martin

(00:45:42):

100% and I think there’s a few other things going on. But when it comes to lifting weights in the evening, mainly comes down to the core temperature, as you said, because your core temperature is elevated for a while. I won’t go too much into the science. But actually, one of my clients took part in this small study and what they found was that the REM sleep and the quality of sleep of the people who train first thing in the morning, versus the ones that trained after work in the evenings, was much better. It is actually, yeah, that’s true. What about one more question, what about caffeine, Stu? I got you there.

Stu

(00:46:17):

Well you did, but an unusual response. I haven’t had a cup of coffee in my life. Not once.

Martin

(00:46:24):

I remember you saying this now. Yeah, of course.

Stu

(00:46:24):

Don’t. Haven’t had it. Don’t have it. And yes, super noticeable. If I’ve had something with, for instance, cocoa, chocolate, a lot of the darker stuff has got more, yes, it’s just a stimulant. Typically, if I was going to have caffeine and my wife is big on this, she’ll have a cup of coffee at 11 o’clock in the morning, she’ll be restless throughout the night. She goes for decaf. I drink decaffeinated teas throughout the day. I drink a truckload of water anyway and typically, I’ll default to peppermint teas, things like that, because I get caught up in work. You look down and realise you’ve got a hot drink next to you that’s now cold and has been cold for a couple of hours.

(00:47:14):

I drink the herb teas because they taste fine cold.

Martin

(00:47:16):

I like them cold as well.

Stu

(00:47:18):

Yeah, me too. On that, about three years ago I had a liver test done from a naturopath, who owed me a favor and said, you know what, I’m going to give you the gold standard of liver tests. And I thought, great, I’m really intrigued to see what this is all about. And I had to take three caffeine pills in the morning, at seven o’clock in the morning, and collect urine samples. And each caffeine pill was the equivalent of a double shot espresso.

Martin

(00:47:50):

Really?

Stu

(00:47:51):

Absolutely.

Martin

(00:47:51):

Wow, that’s a lot mate. That’s dangerous.

Stu

(00:47:53):

Now given the fact that I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life. I was expecting, well,

Martin

(00:48:00):

I don’t know what I was expecting. I was expecting racing heart and just jitters wired. And so I took these three caffeine pills at 7:00 in the morning, expect-

Stu

(00:48:12):

That’s 150 milligrams of caffeine. That’s more than I have every day.

Martin

(00:48:16):

Nothing happened.

Stu

(00:48:17):

All day easy. Nothing happened? Really?

Martin

(00:48:19):

Nothing happened. And I went to sleep, right. And so I thought nothing happened. Went to sleep at 10:00, closed my eyes and woke up and had the most restful, beautiful slate. I woke up feeling fantastic, looked at the clock. 10:15.

Stu

(00:48:36):

Really? Really?

Martin

(00:48:37):

And that was it. That was it. I was wired for the rest of the night, like compliantly wired.

Stu

(00:48:42):

Wow.

Martin

(00:48:42):

That’s enough to put you off. And if you were saying that’s not enough to just… Come on.

Stu

(00:48:48):

I just don’t bother anymore, because I always see people who were trying to cut back on their coffee, and I think, “If you’re trying to cut back, why would I start?”

Martin

(00:48:56):

Exactly. And everyone’s different now. And I think some people I know can have a double espresso before bed and sleep fine. As anything in the human body people metabolize things differently, right?

Stu

(00:49:06):

Yeah.

Martin

(00:49:07):

Yeah. What have you got? Like almost 20,000 different genes, give or take, and he’s one of those genes does different things, right?

Stu

(00:49:12):

Yep.

Martin

(00:49:12):

So one person can have a double espresso, but for me, just basically I’ll have the equivalent of two double espressos a day. Right?

Stu

(00:49:19):

Right.

Martin

(00:49:19):

I mean, it’s about 300 milligrams, maybe a little bit more. Any more than 400 milligrams and I just don’t get a good effect. So I get what you said. Then I’ll just be restless and I won’t get the stimulant effects, but I cut mine off a 1:00 PM because it’s got like, what, a six-hour half life. I think five or six hour half life. So that’s 10 to 12 hours it’s in your systems. So I think the listeners should be aware of that. But so talking about recovery, Stu, yeah, 100%. Sleep is the go-to. I mean, a good trainer, it took me a long time to crack this, but you can never ask enough questions, really. And especially when it comes to clients online. That’s a whole nother animal because you don’t see them. It’s much harder to get information out of them. But first thing I’ll see when they come in I’ll chat to them about how their weeks been or whatever. How was your sleep? Okay. And I’ll just ask a few odd, “Did you wake up at all last night?” “Oh, I woke up once for the toilet, and I woke up okay.” So that basically is, if you wake up in the middle of the night, it’s not ideal. How many hours did you have?

(00:50:12):

And sometimes I go into further detail. People who are really struggling and they’re not recovering in a way where it is, and they’re finding it hard to get results even when it comes to losing body fat and stuff. That is somewhere I’ll look. For the most part, as you said earlier, when you’re not sleeping properly, you’re going to generally make poorer choices with food. Because even after one night’s bad sleep, it’s been proven for you to be, sometimes certain people can be less sensitive to blood sugar fluctuations, which means you’re more in a fat stored even after one night’s sleep. So that is a big one, Stu, for recovery every single time, Both with myself and clients. If there’s something which I can’t quite figure out, right? Yeah, 89% of the time it goes back to poor sleep.

(00:50:54):

It’s as simple as that, really. So I think it’s very important for us to communicate to people, Stu, that it is really simple, really when you think about what it takes to get results is covering those big rocks and forgetting about taking all these, namby-pamby whatever it is. People focus on the pebbles, but it’s focus on the big rocks, right?

Stu

(00:51:15):

Oh, look, I think so. And it’s all-

Martin

(00:51:16):

And if you are going to take a supplement… Sorry, Stu.

Stu

(00:51:18):

No.

Martin

(00:51:19):

You know where to go.

Stu

(00:51:21):

Exactly right, because what it comes down to is, eat real food, drink clean water, focus on your sleep, move your body and, and ultimately you’re going to feel far better than you ever did before if you try and engage in with the, you know, utilize those strategies in some way, shape, or form. And it’s when, then you want to become more nuanced in whatever your goals might be. In your payoff, it’s body composition. That’s when you dive a little bit deeper. So I’m intrigued. We’re kind of coming up on time, but I’d love to run through a day in the life of Martin Silva. And before we do that, I want everybody to jump back online again, talking to Martin Silva Fitness, hit Google images. Get that image in your mind. So day in the life in Martin Silva Fitness. With that in mind, now a lot of the images that will come up will be in your comp days, and I get that that probably isn’t how you look every single day.

Martin

(00:52:20):

I know. But the funny thing is, though, like right now, I’m probably aesthetically, I’m in the shape of my life. I’ve got more muscle mass now. But yeah, I mean, though there are streamed, but the ones that come up, actually, funny enough, just for the listeners, that’s when I actually started developing an eating disorder. When you see like the kind of sex appeal ones, which a lot of them come up at the top, that was like 2014, ’15 when I was talking about when I just started switching over to focusing on health more. So that was kind of the end. But so it just goes to show, there’s another thing we should mention as well. There’s like you can look great but I have an eating disorder, and that’s something that people should tune into is like for example, who you follow. Be very mindful because I’ve met a lot of these fitness models and stuff like that.

(00:53:05):

And I think I sort of said this to you before or on another podcast that I witnessed more eating disorders in the wall of bodybuilding, right, by far more eating disorders and just out of whack life like imbalance lifestyles. Then I have in the hundreds if not over a thousand people that I’ve coached. So it just goes to show you look at these people and you can look great. Like I said, at that point I was going through battling with an unhealthy relationship with food. But if you look at like pictures of me now, I probably look better than that. Probably not quite as lean right now, but not far off. You know what I mean? And that’s cause I’ve made health a priority issue.

Stu

(00:53:41):

Perfect. That’s right. And like you said, I mean, what you see is can often times be quite different to the reality behind that. So-

Martin

(00:53:52):

Exactly. And just to go… Go on. Sorry, man.

Stu

(00:53:53):

No, so I was going to say, so run us through loosely, then, some of the strategies that you call upon each day that perhaps might not be the norm for many of us. And I’m talking about the way that you eat in terms of use some time-restricted feeding and you’re mindful of things like blue light towards the end of the evening. So from kind of the moment you get up, what does a day look like for you?

Martin

(00:54:25):

Mmm. So using that as an example, now this week I’ve had poor sleep, and I really feel it, and I think something that people need to be aware of is, firstly, that’s self-awareness is key, right?

Stu

(00:54:37):

Yep.

Martin

(00:54:38):

You know that, Stu. When you’ve built up these healthy habits, which I’ll talk about my habits now, it’s when you stop doing them, when you compromise them, that’s when you’re like, “Oh, shit.” And this is what I get people to connect to. It’s the health markers. But looking at a day of how I live my life, kind of how an average day looks, like I said, my personal training clients are in the morning. So generally from about 6:00 AM to around 11:00 AM, I have a few clients. All the rest of the stuff I do is online.

(00:55:08):

So let’s just say my alarm will go off. I’d be more regimented over the last month or two with my morning routine. So I let that go a bit and I noticed that I didn’t feel anywhere near as good, and I feel so much better now getting up an hour before I go to work. Fortunately for me, with Titan Fitness in Coogi, I live a five-minute walk away, so I don’t even drive. Since I moved to Australia, I haven’t even owned a car, so literally I’ll get up an hour before. First thing I’ll do, cold shower, obviously after I have a pee. I don’t have to go into details there, but I’ll jump in a cold shower, straight in the cold shower, Stu, been doing that much like yourself. I’ve been doing that for about two and a half years now. That’s how I can go into a whole nother conversation about that, but the main benefits I’ve had from that is firstly no one wants to have a cold shower.

Stu

(00:55:59):

Right. No.

Martin

(00:55:59):

Unless, Stu, do you know when it’s really hot in Australia?

Stu

(00:55:59):

Yeah, that’s right. Absolutely.

Martin

(00:56:00):

And you’re crying out for a cold shower, even first thing in the morning you wake up hot, but it’s a rarity, right? But it’s a rarity, right? Most of the time you don’t want to do it, and in the life, Stu, you can definitely identify with this more than most people when it comes to building a business on the scale you have and getting your health in check like you have, you’d have to do a lot of stuff you didn’t want to do. You had to go above and beyond. you have to go to the place in fact where you said you compromise your health and you weren’t going… Those things, and that just relates, really, and that’s what cold shower, you don’t want to do that. Right? And what I stand in my head is it’s switched something in my mind. It’s like when I don’t want to do certain things, I tend to do them more now. So I’ve got a little bit more resilience there.

(00:56:36):

But also my immune system, Stu, so having those cold showers, I mean, I used to get the old common cold. Never anymore. Touch wood. All right, so I’ll get my cold shower. That’s the first thing I’ll do, one minute cold shower. Out of the shower straight thing I’ll do, first thing I’ll do is put a kettle on, and I’ll make myself, and what I’ve just done this way, I don’t want to go off much here, Stu, is I got the waterfall filter you talked about.

Stu

(00:56:58):

Yes. Brilliant.

Martin

(00:56:59):

Because that’s something we should talk about, is the kind of water you drink, right?

Stu

(00:57:02):

Game-changer.

Martin

(00:57:03):

Can you briefly go through that before I go off? Can you briefly go through that for the listeners, what happened recently?

Stu

(00:57:07):

Yeah, of course. So I interviewed a building biologist called Nicole Bijlsma, and a building biologist is somebody who looks at your residence, the place that you live and inspects it for any factors that might compromise your health in terms of mold, might be drinking water, might be electromagnetic issues in the house. Just so many different factors and great podcast worth listening to. But she said one thing to me/ I asked her what the game-changer would be for her, if I could do one thing after, after dialing into all of her wisdom, what can I take away and share with my audience as being perhaps one of the big game-changers that we could do right now? And she said to me, “Drink clean water.” And I thought, “I am drinking clean water. I’ve got a Brita water filter and everything’s good.”

(00:58:03):

And she said, “No, no.” She said, you want to be drinking unchlorinated water because it’s really important for us, especially in today’s day and age, to work on our digestive health. And everybody’s heard about getting good gut health, gut bacteria. And she said, how can you optimize that if you’re drinking chlorinated water, given the fact that chlorine is a highly effective antibacterial agent. So you’re taking your probiotic with an antibacterial agent, like counterintuitive. How can you possibly optimize your gut health when you are drinking liters and liters of an antibacterial agent every single day?

(00:58:45):

And so I just installed an under-the-sink water filter, cost me about 500 bucks. You can get them a damn slight cheaper in Bunnings. And for the last almost a year now, I’ve been drinking the cleanest water that I can find, and my gut health has continued to get better and better and better and better. And so for me, yeah, it’s been a game-changer. And I just think, just crazy. And you don’t have to go out and buy bottles and bottles of filtered water, contributing to plastic waste. Like I just got a stainless steel flask and when I go to work I fill up that flask before I go. And that’s my drinking water for the day.

Martin

(00:59:21):

Exactly the same. Yeah.

Stu

(00:59:23):

Just works a treat.

Martin

(00:59:24):

Oh, works a tret. So that’s what I do now. I’d go to my countertop filter now, Stu. I fill the kettle up like a right snob.

Stu

(00:59:31):

Yeah, why not?

Martin

(00:59:31):

No, I’ll tell you what. You can even taste the massive… I couldn’t believe the difference in taste, the difference in taste between the two tap water, and that’s not to say, look, I don’t want to scare the listeners, either, like drinking some tap water. It’s not going to kill you. But when you’re talking about optimizing, it might be a good investment for a lot of people. But anyway, I’ll have it just lukewarm so I’ll have half hot water and half cold water. I’ll squeeze a core of a lemon in there. Because the lemon lemon is really, really good generally for gut health, hydrochloric acid, and the gastric juices, it helps with digestion. So I’ll have just like lemon and water in the morning.

(01:00:06):

Then whilst I’m drinking, once I have that on the side, I’ll do my mobility moves. So I’ll spend about literally five, 10 minutes, much like yourself. I noticed on your recent blog you’ll do six minutes of exercise. But I’ll do about five, 10 minutes of mobility priming movements, which is a whole nother conversation. Mobility, I’m actually correcting the issues you have because every single person has muscular imbalances, and 99% of the time, people are, 90% of the time people are going to see chiropractors, doing all this kind of stuff. But unless you get to the root cause and you work on your movement patterns, which is what I do, like I get a really tight neck and shoulders and stuff like that. So I’ll work on my neck and shoulders if I’ve got time. And then I’ll do my hips.

(01:00:48):

And then I’ll journal then as well. So this is only over the last month or so, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I’ll do my journaling. I’ll just write down all of three minutes, my feelings, my thoughts, my fears, how I feel, all that kind of stuff, and then I’ll just write down three things I’m grateful for. Boom, I’m out the door. Is there anything else I do there? That’s pretty much it. Then I’m out the door, Stu, and I’m on with clients, then. So I’ll have a black coffee then before I get to work. I’ll have a black coffee, which is like two shots of coffee. So I’m actually, there’s been some studies to show that it can actually help a fast having black coffee.

(01:01:22):

But look, we’re splitting hairs here, really, Stu. Intermittent fasting can be beneficial for a lot of people. Not everyone, but for me it works a treat, so I got lots of clarity, my energy. I’m at my best in the mornings in that fasted state, and generally then I’ll break my fast then, kind of like anywhere between about 10:00 and 12:00, really, 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM, give or take. And I have three meals. And so within that period, I try to give it at least we four hours in between each meal. I seem to feel better if I have like a longer gap, like four hours roughly is the sweet spot. And yeah, that’s it then. So I’ll just have my three meals in a day. My diet is 80, 90% whole foods. I do have an addiction to dark chocolate [inaudible 01:02:05]. So that’s pretty much a daily thing. That’s my little fix.

Stu

(01:02:09):

Yeah, I love it.

Martin

(01:02:10):

Normally, like 85 to 100%, like 85 minimum for me. The darker the better, Stu. Do you do dark chocolate?

Stu

(01:02:15):

Yeah, I do. I like the Lindt 90%.

Martin

(01:02:20):

It’s good.

Stu

(01:02:21):

Yeah, it’s delicious. And I actually, my brother-in-law, when he came over last year to Australia, bought me a block of 100% dark chocolate. Yeah, that was certainly different.

Martin

(01:02:34):

I found that amazing. I was the same as well. I didn’t like the 100% stuff at first.

Stu

(01:02:38):

Yeah.

Martin

(01:02:38):

But you know, you’ve got Harris Farms here. They do 100% Dominican, and it’s like $7 for a bar, right?

Stu

(01:02:43):

Yeah.

Martin

(01:02:43):

But it’s incredible. It’s zero sugar. It’s all fat, antioxidants, all the rest of it, and it tastes lovely, but it’s going to cost you an arm and leg. Anyway, so then in terms of my training, Stu, as well, I’d like to just verify that quickly. My training, I train at the moment two, three times a week, I do resistance training in the gym. So I’ll do two or three full body training programs, much like the training program, which I sell via my website. It’s laid out the same the way I train. So say every four weeks. Go on.

Stu

(01:03:12):

Yep. Oh, how long would your typical training session be?

Martin

(01:03:15):

About an hour.

Stu

(01:03:19):

Oh, okay.

Martin

(01:03:19):

So including the priming, but sometimes it will take a bit longer, but at the moment I’m not doing… so I’ll do the full body. But at the moment I’m not isolating my biceps, triceps, calves, and abs like I normally do. So I’ll normally add them onto the workout, and that can take an hour and a half. But at the moment I’m just focused on the big body parts, focusing on the big body parts, leg, shoulders, back, and chest. So you know, bear in mind you’re working your arms anyway when you’re doing that. But on the days in between then in between, Stu, so let’s just say I did three full body sessions in the gym. Days in between, I’ll do mobility as much as I can. Just for the listeners, you can never, ever do enough mobility. It’s impossible. Corrective movements. Most people could do with more yoga and stuff like that. But what I do then is I do resistance band session shoes.

Stu

(01:04:03):

Okay.

Martin

(01:04:03):

So that’s my little trick, resistance band. You should try it, Stu. Resistance band, like medium resistance, doesn’t have to be heavy. You know the like the rubber bands with handles on?

Stu

(01:04:13):

Yep.

Martin

(01:04:13):

So I’ll just do a… You can do up to three of those in a day if you really want to build muscle and get an insane pump.

Stu

(01:04:20):

Okay.

Martin

(01:04:21):

And recover faster in between sessions. You can do two or three of these resistance band sessions. All you’re doing, Stu, again is like six to 10 minutes. That’s all you’re doing.

Stu

(01:04:29):

Wow.

Martin

(01:04:31):

And all you’re doing is say four or five different exercises. Focus on the weaker body parts. So for me I’ll do body weight squats, for example. So I’ll just do body weight squats. Then I’ll do some side lateral raises. Then I’ll just back some pushups and bicep kills with a band, and that’s pretty much it. A little circuit, and I’ll do that on the days in between. Just one of them at the moment, Stu, around about 10 minutes. But if I really want to get in killer shape, I’ll do two to three of those on the days in between. And that’s a big one for the audience to take away here is the training frequency. So I’m hitting every body part two, three times per week properly in the gym. But then just by doing those band sessions, Stu, you’re sending a muscle building signal, so you’re still going to build muscle, you’re going to get more of a pump in the muscles, and you’re also going to recover faster.

(01:05:18):

So that’s a little trick as well. And that’s pretty much my day. And then in the evening then, Stu, lately, as I said, I’ve been slacking with the evening routine. Generally I’ll come off electrics. I try to come off electrics by 8:00 PM. On a Wednesday and Saturday, I get my phones to lock me out of all the apps at 7:00 PM.

Stu

(01:05:34):

Excellent.

Martin

(01:05:35):

For the listeners, you can sit there on your phone in settings. I go into downtime. It’ll let you out. So yeah, and that’s pretty much a day for me, Stu, really.

Stu

(01:05:43):

Fantastic. Oh, wow, lots and lots of lots and lots of little gems in there. And for the listeners as well, now that we’ve partnered, you’re on board, 180 Nutrition, I’m super excited to be able to duck into these conversations in more depth in the future. And yeah, very, very keen to get comments, feedback, suggestions, things like that. And we can dive as deep as you want on any given topic, because I think between us, we’ve got reasonable amount of… we’ve done the groundwork in the industry and we’ve got-

Martin

(01:06:22):

Definitely, 100%, mate.

Stu

(01:06:22):

Yeah.

Martin

(01:06:23):

And as you say, it’s learning from the greats, though. You said this before, right? And that’s another pillar of health though, as far as the relationships. That’s another conversation for health. But even in terms of get any information out there, everyone’s learning from other people. You know what I’m saying? It’s as simple as that. Right?

Stu

(01:06:40):

Absolutely right, absolutely right. And I’m continually learning as well from the guests that I have on podcasts as well, and all of the research and the readings and the listenings that I do every single day. So yeah, it’s just empowering. But-

Martin

(01:06:52):

I wanted to be on board, mate. I wanted to say I wanted to be on board and yeah, just for my listeners, you should go and check out the Health Sessions podcast. Obviously if they’re listening to it, my audience. Check out Health Sessions podcast by 180 Nutrition. My man, Stuart Cook. Incredible. Now I’ve learned some… I’ve got so much value from your podcast, Stu.

Stu

(01:07:12):

Fantastic.

Martin

(01:07:13):

I’m not just saying that, but the guests you get on there is just… it’s insane, man. It’s good work.

Stu

(01:07:18):

Yeah. We’ve got some good ones coming up, too, so I’m really… Yeah, look, we’ll keep rolling. So for our listeners today, they want to find out more about you. You mentioned you’ve got an online program, you’ve got a podcast. Where should we go? What would be the best place to send them?

Martin

(01:07:33):

Okay. So my website is optimiseyourbody.com. So “optimise,” spelled s-e on the end, not z-e. So optimiseyourbody.com if you head over there, you can get some good free guides I’ve got on there. So I’ve got like a fat loss fundamentals guide which has got like everything in there, and it’s all free in terms of calculating your calories, your macros, all that kinds of stuff. Food sources, like how to build your relationship with food, all that kind of stuff. It’s all in there and it’s free. You also get a free ab guide and a free fasting guide. So just click on the program tab, click “free guides,” and just download it there and then.

Martin

(01:08:11):

Also, yeah, as I said, we’ve got training programs on there. My main one is the version 1.0 training program. It’s a 10-week training program and it’s just the stuff I talked about them. It’s basically out of all the people I’ve trained, the hundreds of people, it’s what works for 80 90% of people. Full body training, training the whole body two, three times per week. And then we have our target sessions then. So on the days in between then, we have specific sessions if you want to do more training. A lot of people do like to train more than two times per week, and I get that. So getting game-changing results for that. And actually shameless plug here, Stu. I’ve got an offer on right now is 50% off. So it’s Optimise. If your listeners use optimiseyourbody, at checkout they can get at a 50% off. But just above that just get the free guides because there’s a lot of free stuff on there. And yeah, Instagram, that’s what I do most of my stuff. So @MartinSilvaFitness. Find me there, and that’s my main platforms, really, Stu, without complicating things.

Stu

(01:09:08):

Fantastic. Fantastic. So we will put all of that and any other links that were spoken about in the conversation today in the show notes and-

Martin

(01:09:17):

Thanks, man, oh the podcasts. Obviously yeah, optimiseyourbody podcast. Yeah.

Stu

(01:09:20):

[crosstalk 01:09:20] So iTunes, Spotify, all the usual places.

Martin

(01:09:22):

iTunes, yeah, that’s available. iTunes, Spotify, all the Android ones, everywhere, pretty much.

Stu

(01:09:26):

Fantastic.

Martin

(01:09:26):

YouTube as well.

Stu

(01:09:28):

Lots and lots of information, loads of resources, loads of gems, and like you said, if you’re interested in any way, shape or form in optimizing your body and aren’t we all? I mean, ultimately we all want to live our best lives, then definitely, definitely worth checking out. Have a look around, see what works for you. Something will, I guarantee it.

Martin

(01:09:48):

Thanks a lot, Stu. Looking forward to our collaboration, mate, and it’s great to actually find firstly, yourself. We get along well, but actually a supplement, which is the real deal. I’m not just saying that you know yourself, there’s so many bullshit supplements out there, so it’s great to find someone with proper integrity who actually cares about people’s health. So thank you again. [crosstalk 01:10:08]

Stu

(01:10:07):

Thanks again so much. Until next time, I cannot wait to come down, have a training session with you, and talk more on these little podcast where we can dig deeper into some of the bits that we’ve spoken about today as well. So thanks again.

Martin

(01:10:22):

Thanks again, mate.

Stu

(01:10:23):

Take care. Bye-Bye.

Martin

(01:10:24):

See you, Stu.