CT, given what you pustulate about mTor and aging… Are you still taking Micro-PA?
I am not. I do believe it is an effective product but I personally do not take it. Let me be clear. I believe that if you want to maximize muscle growth you need to activate mTOR as much as possible. BUT that if your goal is different (slowing down aging) then you will use different strategies, including not trying to amplify mTOR as much as you can.
When you say slow down aging, what exactly do you mean by that? Looks? how you feel?
At one point there is something empowering in doing some of the research yourself. Simply searching “mTOR aging” gives you tons of papers that will provide the answers.
Hi Coach,
In view of your recent findings, do you then actively focus on increasing the expression of AMPK? I love the health benefits associated with AMPK, including mitochondrial health, longevity, insulin sensitivity etc. but of course this comes at a price, and muscle building and even performance can be one of them. Then there are health and longevity concerns of course, should anyone care about such unsexy things! I have recently been thinking about the same thing, even though I am only 28. An extreme example of AMPK activation would be a Ketogenic diet touted as a optimal tool for increasing mitochondrial density, longevity and other things of that nature. Have you ever entertained the idea of going keto, or is that too radical an approach for your liking (it is for me)? It is so hard to ride to horses with one ass so to speak… I settled for peri-workout nutrition and an otherwise low(er) carb diet to ensure that the mTOR and AMPK seesaw has a semblance of a balanced approach. Of course, there are many other things you can do to promote AMPK expression outside of lowering insulin level and fasting, but this is perhaps a good example of a low-hanging fruit idea,
Hopefully I am not going completely off-topic here: Do you take any other supps promote your mitochondrial health outside of indigo and fish-oil?
Keep up the great work!
Haven’t been on T Nation forums in a while, Just wanted to say Hi CT! Still got your Black Book of Secrets! Anything in there I should no longer put investment into?
If your training philosophies and coaching ideas don’t change commensurate with your experience, then you are doing something wrong. Keep learning and keep sharing, coach. Thanks.
1 Like
I personally just like most of others absolutely love the coaching. Your an insperation to us all and the ones who are ungrateful for your teachings then they can screw off
Hi Coach,
I greatly admire your work over the years, in particular your ability to draw in the best knowledge in other areas of neurology, psychology, genetics, etc. and make a real contribution to our knowledge of our selves. You neuro type work is really ground-breaking.
There is a key point in one of your post above about us not being able to accept at times the hard truths; and the concerns over mTor and aging, is about as big a concern as I have ever seen in regard to bodybuilding and weightlifting. This isn’t just about sore tendons and cranky knees, or even lower back problems; this is premature aging and related illnesses!! Nothing has ever spooked my beliefs in training as much as this.
I took up your challenge and spent a few days studying whatever I could find on the topic. What’s clear is that it will take lot of work to find balance between the different perspectives. The vegans, for example, avoid leucine, not so much because of mTOR, but because it comes from animals killed for food, or from milk that “aint yo’ momma’s” 
. They are still banging out the reps though and loading up on pea protein and trying to achieve as much mTOR and size as they can, just to show the world that it can be done without bothering animals.
Other sources describe “unfortunate cases” of guys with really high mTOR, burdened with “excessive muscle growth” and “elevated testosterone levels”, as if these were some kind of grave problems the guy needs to be saved from.
Surely there has to be a happy middle ground here somewhere. The idea that lifting weights, having muscle, having some T in your blood, is fine for procreation but a liability once you pass forty - well that’s just sad.
I notice that some sources distinguish between mTOR in the internal organs (bad) and mTOR in the muscles (not bad). This would suggest you could lift as you like but avoid leucine.
Hell, I’d even become vegan if it meant reducing any negative impact from working out. Broccoli washed down with scotch!
I really look forward to your ongoing work on this Coach…
Don’t worry about it, keep going
I added your “V-taper” routine (muscle snatches and overhead carries) to my whole body workout last night. Loved it! Looking forward to see what consistently applying it does for my physique.
Thanks Thibs!
Don’t beat yourself up over a few morons.
First and foremost is the unbelievable complexity of the human body, gender differences, genetic differences and lastly age differences. Add to this the fact that medical science is not so much interested in how to help optimize peoples health as it is to find a new drug to alleviate a disease–which I will argue most are caused by a lack of optimization in the first place (weight management, nutrition, etc.). With all of our science we have only scratched the surface of knowledge in this regard.
I only recently discovered (65 this year) that I am NOT a hardgainer and that I should have been doing things differently years ago. Now I am so lean and mean that I get comments from people at the gym. I can see my abs again after last getting a look over 40 years years ago. My Tanita scale says I have the metabolism of a 20-something. I look forward to every Sunday when ‘The Weekly Dose’ comes out and have always found your articles compelling.
So keep up the good work and ignore the morons.
Don’t let the haters bring you down, Coach! Your scientific approach to weight training is the best I’ve ever seen. The only way your views wouldn’t change, would be if you didn’t grow and continue to learn. With everyone out there selling their info, its hard to believe that anyone could complain about all the awesome knowledge you drop. Thanks for sharing!
I noticed this old thread became active. Are you still feeling this way, CT?
Guns
I don’t even remember what this thread was about LOL
2 Likes
Haha 
. I wondered why it was brought up. Hope fatherhood is treating you right! I bet you wondered if I’d bring up how that affected your cortisol levels 