[Newsletter] The Smartest Coach in the Room

The swole guide, no hacks Every Saturday, The Smartest Coach in the Room delivers helpful takeaways on the hottest nutrition and health topics and the world’s most effective coaching techniques. (Did some amazing friend forward this to you? [Subscribe here]( How often do you think of your 85+ year old self? I try to think of my much-older self regularly. Most often, I conjure her up at the gym. During my last reps of a set of Bulgarian split squats, I say to her, “This is for you, girl.” I focus on the investment I’m making in my future. Like money in the bank, muscle will help protect me as I age. (If nothing else, the thought exercise distracts me from the orange-juice-on-a-coldsore feeling in my quads.) [A GIF of a woman holding a dumbell and performing split squats in a gym.] What “crying on the inside” really looks like. Muscles don’t just look good; they’re life-saving. In addition to literally helping to keep us upright and preventing falls, muscle saves lives because it’s metabolically active. Muscle tissue… 💪🏽 Improves insulin sensitivity, and safely uses or stores excess blood sugar 💪🏻 Secretes protective substances (called myokines) that regulate inflammation, and slows cellular aging 💪🏿 Reduces age-related fat gain and its associated health risks (like high blood pressure, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes) 💪🏾 Improves heart, lung, and overall health almost as effectively as cardio ([It’s]( [true!]( Resistance training is the best tool for building muscle. There’s plenty of debates on the internet over what supplements to take, what diet to eat, or what specific exercises to execute, but at the end of the day, the (controllable) factor that will most influence your capacity to build muscle is how often and consistently you move around heavy things. [A diagram of the factors that affect muscle growth.] “I don’t wanna become a gym bro.” For clients who are intimidated by weight lifting, you can assure them that gains might be more accessible than they think: 🏆 A resistance training session need only take 30 to 60 minutes. 🏆 Plus, just one weekly strength training session can help most people make progress—and can be all some need to maintain muscle. If they’re willing and able to do more, two to three sessions a week is optimal for most in terms of staying healthy and slowing aging (and will put them in the top 15 percent of the population, which is kind of a flex). Anything over four weekly sessions puts you in the category of people who exercise because they want to get better at exercising, and beating their own PRs. Which is awesome. But not universally important. Also, protein. Dietary protein stimulates muscle growth. And, protein needs go up with activity level and age. If you’re over 30 and a regular exerciser, you likely need around 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (or about 0.75 to 1 gram per pound) to optimize muscle mass (and likely overall health). Depending on your body size, that adds up to about four to eight palm-sized portions of protein-rich foods daily. Focus on those two “big rocks,” and you and your clients are mostly covered. For “bonus” strategies, we wrote a whole article on muscle building, which you can read here: [The new science of muscle: The big impact strategies you need to do (and the fluff you can ignore)]( And if you want the best hack-free, science-based, evergreen strategies to improve health, check out [Level 1 Nutrition Coaching Certification](. It combines the science of nutrition along with the art of coaching—so you can help people apply the most impactful habits, and change lives. [Become a Certified Nutrition Coach - Join the presale list for the #1 rated PN Level 1 Nutrition Certification]( Take care, Alex :) --------------------------------------------------------------- Alex Picot-Annand, PN2, Holistic Nutritionist Editorial Director Precision Nutrition Home of the world’s top nutrition coaches --------------------------------------------------------------- What did you think of this email? Precision Nutrition Business Insider's #1 Choice for Nutrition Certifications in 2022 --- To view this email as a web page, click [here.]( Precision Nutrition Inc. 18 King Street East, Suite 1400 Toronto, ON, M5C 1C4, Canada Finally, nutrition makes sense. Visit us at [www.precisionnutrition.com]( today. Follow us on [Unsubscribe or Manage Preferences](