#996 - Dr. Andy Galpin

Joe Rogan (0:07)

Yes, and we're live. What's up, man, how are you?

Andy Galpin (0:09)

Fantastic.

Joe Rogan (0:10)

Thanks for doing this, appreciate it.

Andy Galpin (0:11)

Appreciate you letting me come up.

Joe Rogan (0:13)

So why don't you tell people what you do?

Andy Galpin (0:15)

I am a muscle physiologist, so I'm a Ph.D. in Human Bioenergetics, and I'm the director for the Center for Sport Performance, which all that basically means.

I study muscle physiology, why it grows, shrinks, repairs, dies, and all that crap.

Joe Rogan (0:27)

Now, when you're dealing with athletes and you're dealing with state of the art performance, how much does that stuff change year to year? Like protocols, like what people used to think was the way to go, what's the new way to go?

Andy Galpin (0:40)

Well, if you take a look, or if you examine just the idea of science in general, it's the understanding that we're wrong. That's really what science is. If we knew what the answer was, we wouldn't look into it. Like, what's the point of doing a study if we know the answer?

So by definition, we're always evolving in that sense, but it's quite funny how the central tenets are really not that different.

You take nutrition, you take training, the vast majority of those things are similar to what they were 20, 30, 80, 100 years ago. So the bulk of it, what matters for the bulk of athletes is fairly standard. Where it differs is the last few percentage points. It's getting us that last 10% gains or being very specific. So you, on a personal level, need this little bit of difference and then you need this tiny bit of difference, but the bulk of it really is not that different.

Joe Rogan (1:27)

Well, when you watch MMA fighters in particular, you see so many different methods, I mean, so many different ways to approach things and I never know who's right, you know, it really depends upon who's successful and then you go, well, that guy obviously has it down.

Andy Galpin (1:42)

Yeah, that's a major fallacy called the fallacy of authority, so, or appeal to authority, which is somebody really good did it or somebody who coaches somebody really good, they did it, or a lot of people did it. All three of those are examples of major logical fallacies, right, to break down on Aristotle's reasoning. That's not what we do. Now they can help us with some ideas of where to go, but that's a really bad approach. So we have to understand what works for somebody at a very high level is not necessarily going to work for the bulk of people, and in particular, the great example is Schwarzenegger. So when he came out with this book of the Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding, everyone was like, fantastic, I'll go do those workouts.

You're not Arnold, and you should be doing what Arnold did when he was at your stage, not at his stage.

Joe Rogan (2:27)

Well, also he's doing a bucket of steroids.

Andy Galpin (2:29)

Well, that too, right?

Joe Rogan (2:30)

That's a big factor, especially back in those days, they didn't come clean about that stuff.

Andy Galpin (2:35)

No.

Joe Rogan (2:35)

So guys are like, hey, how come my biceps are ripping off the bone?

Andy Galpin (2:38)

Right, or how come it's not working for me?

Joe Rogan (2:40)

Yeah.

Andy Galpin (2:41)

Yeah, so all that is really important to understand. With the context of recovery, the nutrition he has, all the other stresses that are eliminated from his life, all of that changes what's gonna work or not work for you.

Joe Rogan (2:53)

Now there's a bunch of different ways of approaching things, like I've always been fascinated by the Marv Marinovich method, and now Nick Kersan takes that method as well. And their idea is that strength and conditioning is, especially when a fighter's in camp, is more important than anything. More important even than skill work. Right. Because you already know how to fight. So strength and conditioning should take precedent, get all that done, so get your body to the point where you have the most horsepower, the biggest gas tank, the best tires, the best handling.

And then you already know how to fight, so just approach it that way.

Andy Galpin (3:28)

Yeah, so the guy that actually trained Marv, Michael Yeses, is a Fullerton guy.

It's Cal State Fullerton. So he was the scientist.

Joe Rogan (3:35)

Michael Yeses?

Andy Galpin (3:36)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (3:36)

That's his name?

Andy Galpin (3:37)

Yeah, Y-E-S-S, Russian name.

He's awesome. He's like 85 now or something. And if you want to get massively entertained by somebody, like he's a good one.