Gut health is often associated with kombucha, quick-fix cleanses, and questionable practices. This certainly does not come to mind when people think of a strength athlete. The connotation of the gut for decades prior would be a powerlifter merely bracing his pancake-filled gut against his lever belt, or bodybuilders testing their digestive limits in an offseason phase.

To be clear, we are talking about more than claiming your throne and hitting the restroom daily. We are talking about modernized gut health with a focus on the performance-focused strength athlete or bodybuilder.

Let’s start with the basics: You eat food to nourish your cells. If you make poor food choices, or if your body cannot digest, absorb, and utilize the food due to a poor digestive function, you might develop signs, symptoms, and/or a diagnosable illness.

Digestive insufficiencies contribute to a wide range of health issues, including headaches, depression, arthritis, foggy thinking, autoimmune illness,...

In a society of instant gratification and rapid rewards, all too often we forget the powerful impact of accumulated and compounded work over a substantial period of time.

In the gym or in the kitchen it is commonplace to look for that magic pill or panacea to expedite desired results. However, it is not always just the "what" that someone is doing that should interest us. The "how" is equally powerful.

One thing is for certain - there is no shortage of motivational videos and memes in the fitness industry. Often times what is lacking is execution.

One of the publishers of Success magazine created a theory called The Compound Effect. It is an active mindset and approach to creating positive and impactful change in an area of your life that needs reform. In our case this area of your life in which you desire success could be a physical transformation for a competition, or mastery of a specific physical fitness skill.

The creator of The Compound Effect aims his book at jump-starting your...

There are few things in life with a stronger association than the hormone testosterone and the strength-power athlete community. This T-molecule is known for strength, hypertrophy, power, and performance in bodybuilding, powerlifting, weightlifting, and strongman.

This is a fair association, given its ability to alter physiques and abilities under the bar. It is not uncommon for athletes to seek out diet and training regimens to optimize this hormone or shop for the latest test booster, adaptogen, or in some cases, performance-enhancing drugs to enhance testosterone. But what if there was more than just one powerful “T” driving our internal health and performance?

From a physiological perspective, there are few, if any, hormones more influential than thyroid hormones, especially for athletes. Thyroid hormones not only serve as an energy regulator but as a barometer of the influence that stress has on our bodies, whether that be training stress, nutritional stress from a...

Testosterone Origin:

Is it possible to boost testosterone with just macronutrients? If you’ve read your share of nutrition articles, you know dietary fat and cholesterol get all the attention when it comes to hormone production.

 Testosterone, like many of our other hormones, is derived from a hormone called pregnenolone. Pregnenolone relies on a cholesterol precursor to serve as the raw material for our hormonal production. Consume a low-fat diet and you’re leaving testosterone on the proverbial table as you deny the body adequate resources and building blocks for this biochemical process, But what about carbs? Is it possible that one of the most overlooked testosterone-raising strategies on the market is actually in your workout nutrition? The answer is a resounding yes.

Though fat may provide the raw materials for production through cholesterol, carbs can protect your testosterone production by opposing cortisol via the production of insulin.

Why Insulin Is a...

Testosterone is perhaps the most well known and most sought after hormone in the male body. It is commonly known as a prerequisite for strength, muscle mass, bone mass, fat distribution and virility. Yet, over the past several decades male testosterone levels have been steadily declining. Studies have shown adult men are walking around with just fractions of the levels of our preceding generations (probably somewhere between and ½ to be precise) even just comparing the 20th century to today. 
But, what gives? We lift with purpose, and we eat according to our macros, yet somehow we pale in comparison to men from just a few decades prior.

Stress and Test Anatomically speaking, we are the same human beings with the same production capacity as our ancestors, but what has changed as we live our daily lives is our environment and our nutrition. Think of it this way – we are using the same out of date machinery (biomechanics), but trying to process...

Over the last several years, iN3 has created awareness around the fact that training protocols MUST be matched to INDIVIDUAL GOALS.  This has led to us creating the triangle of awareness, a principle that several nutrition coaches now use as the foundation of their client protocols and prescriptions.

Recently I had the opportunity to meet Sam Miller of Oracle Fitness, and he shared with me some interesting thoughts regarding this application inside of workout programs as well.  In fact, I liked the methodology so much that I asked him to write about it for everyone here at the iN3 blog.
I’m sure you will enjoy this, and as always if there are any questions please feel free to post them up
“Getting lean or increased muscularity should be as simple as a calorie deficit or surplus combined with your favorite WODS, right? Unfortunately, not.

While training periodization has existed for decades, and nutritional periodization has gained...