The Better Basics Podcast

Hot Topic: Instagramming before your sets reduces lifting performance We've heard them all before. Chest up! Tighten your core! Lift through your heels! While all workout cues are well intentioned and have a purpose, they are often misapplied or misunderstood. Matt and Dylan discuss the top 10 workout cues, why they're good and bad, and how to use them effectively. Q&A: I'm intermi...

Hot Topic: Heavy resistance training at retirement age induces 4 year lasting beneficial effects in muscle strength It's really easy to get confused about truth and myth in the world of fitness. Dylan and Matt have both been duped by most of these ideas and take a dive into the top 15 misconceptions about exercise. Does muscle turn into fat if you stop working out? Is soreness an indicator of...

Hot Topic: Insufficient sleep undermines dietary efforts to lose fat There are 5 key categories of focus when it comes to training and each offer unique benefits. You can picture them on a Venn diagram, with lots of crossover, but there's a benefit to focusing on each of them in your annual training calendar. We talk about strength, hypertrophy, longevity, function, and performance and highlig...

RIP to Fitness OG Richard Simmons 25% of the way to 100 episodes! To celebrate, Matt and Dylan discuss 25 simple things you can do to improve your health immediately. Everything is free or low cost, and will benefit your health instantly. Q&A: Tips for post-workout recovery?

Hot Topic: Exercising and affirmations done together is good for your brain health? You can go for a jog, hit a few weights, or simply move a bit more and it will be better for your health than doing nothing at all. But, if you have a specific goal (live longer, lose weight, get stronger, look better, run faster...and on and on) it's critical to have a plan and a program to help you meet that...

Hot Topic: Dancing is the Best Exercise for Curing Depression Diets often gain popularity because of their weight loss promises. And while they sometimes work in the short term, are they actually effective, healthy, and good to pursue? They all have pros and cons that anyone considering a diet should be aware of. At the end of the day, the best plan for nutrition is the one that's sustainable....

Hot Topic: The Cure for Hiccups Exists (And It's Free) Things that are trendy oftentimes don't work. They gain attention because they're novel, look cool, or are promoted by someone we like. And there's tons of popular ways to train that it gets confusing to know what works and what doesn't. All exercise has its merits, but there are pros and cons. Especially, with the trendy s...

Hot Topic: Why It Was Easier to Be Skinny in the 1980s - A new study finds that people today who eat and exercise the same amount as people 20 years ago are still fatter. What Say You About? [Edition One]: The first in a series of episodes where Matt and Dylan question each other and have a fun discussion off the cuff on a variety of health and fitness topics, including: Barefoot Shoes, Suspension...

Hot Topic: The Planetary Health Diet makes you 30% less likely to die? Did you have too much fun over the weekend? Returning from a vacation? Sometimes, these breaks are necessary, and it's okay to stray a bit from your "healthy" habits. In fact, having a little fun should be part of a healthy lifestyle. Matt and Dylan discuss strategies for going on a trip and returning from a trip...

Hot Topic: BMI is out, Body Comp is in We wanted to call this episode "Gut Health Masterclass" because that's what a good influencer would do. But really, the mastery is pretty basic, especially for the gut problems that the majority of people are dealing with. Gut problems are incredibly prominent, which means there's a huge market for the "Gut Masters" to sell you stu...

Hot Topic: Phalates in Fairlife Protein Milk Life is busy. And it's easy to push fitness and nutrition to the side when other priorities pile up. If fitness and nutrition aren't the first or even fifth most important thing in your life, what can you do to get and stay fit? Matt and Dylan discuss strategies for fitting fitness and nutrition into a busy lifestyle, including: how to prioritiz...

Hot Topic: Senior Citizens are Poisoning Themselves with Weed Foods that are less healthy are often significantly more convenient. A packaged bag of chips, a frozen pizza, a pop through the drive-thru. Healthy eating can feel tough, and let's face it, chips and pizza are delicious. So, how can we continue to eat what we like while improve the nutritional quality of it AND make it easy? Matt an...

Hot Topic: "Do We Love Our Children?" - Scott Galloway's TED Talk There is TONS of misinformation out there. With the prevalence of social and short form media, it's never been easier to be misled into the wrong strategies and mindsets for fitness. Matt and Dylan debunk their 8 biggest fitness lies and discuss the nuance around each of them to dispel the myth and provide actionab...

Hot Topic of the Week: Prime Sports Drink & PFAS In the health and wellness world things can get weird. The mental and spiritual. The connection between the brain and the body. The surge in people calling themselves "biohackers". The reality is, there are some interesting things that we can take from all of it. Whether it's backed by legit science or comes from thousand year old...

Hot Topic: New study on strength training versus cardio for fat loss While it's not optimal for sustainable fat loss (see Episode 13) cardio has a ton of benefits. The top of the list being that doing the right type and amount of cardio will help you live longer. Matt and Dylan discuss the multiple benefits that come with doing cardio, the different types, and practical ways to implement it in...

Hot Topic of the Week: Coffee When it comes to losing weight, and more importantly, losing fat, lots of people turn to cardio to shed the pounds. It can work for some in the short term, but it's rarely a winning strategy over the long run. Matt and Dylan discuss why cardio sucks for fat loss, and what you can do instead to not only sustainably cut the fat but also keep it off for good. Q&A...

Hot Topic of the Week: Fasted Cardio Successful training requires a balance of consistency and novelty. Different training modalities also offer different types of health benefits, but it's challenging (if not impossible) to excel at all of them concurrently. How do we think about cycling through the different types of strength training adaptations and types of exercise of the course of the ye...

Have you ever thought about what it means to be healthy? What a beast of a topic. Is it defined by a specific diet or workout plan? Does it require certain supplements? What about the health of our minds? This is a conversation that Matt and Dylan plan to have annually. An ever evolving conversation about the pillars of health and the nuances that are missed in attention grabbing, media culture to...

Media loves to push dramatic health headlines for eyeballs and clicks. But, they rarely tell the full story and often mislead people into counterintuitive action. In 2024 alone, major publications have told us that diet soda and protein are going to kill us, that corn flakes are going to neuter us, and that time-restricted eating was going to stop our hearts. Matt and Dylan dive into these headlin...

Matt and Dylan discuss the health and fitness things that they're in and out on in 2024. Barbell back squats? Volume training or intensity? Convenient foods? Tracking macros? Supplements? Even peanut butter and banana sandwiches?! A discussion on the nuances of each, whether they're IN or OUT, and some food for thought for you to consider this year and beyond.

With spring breaks and summer vacations coming soon, there may be some time away from the gym on the horizon. Once you get into the swing of working out and eating better, it's easy to resist a break in the pursuit of consistency. Matt and Dylan struggled with this early in their lifting journey. They discuss not only how to overcome the anxiety of taking a break, but also the positive physica...

Last episode Matt and Dylan discussed some supplements that might be helpful. In this one, they get into the ones that are heavily pushed that offer little to no benefit, and hurt the wallet. In this episode, they discuss. 1) Multivitamins 2) Proprietary Blends 3) BCAAs / EAAs 4) Collagen 5) Preworkout 6) Testosterone Boosters 7) Fat Burners

Supplements are confusing. With social media influencers making a buck off of recommending the next best thing, it's easy to be convinced that a pill or powder is the solution to your problem (often one that they've convinced you that you have). That said, there are definitely some things that you can consider that might provide a supplemental benefit to your life! In this episode Matt and...

Matt and Dylan suck at New Year's resolutions. And we feel like we aren't alone. If you found yourself motivated at the turn of the New Year but are already off the resolution boat, or are looking for strategies now to reignite your fitness and nutrition goals - this episode is for you! Why do the fail and what can we do to improve them so that we don't fail next time? Let's leave...

Gym lingo can be confusing for those new to the gym or returning after a break. What's a set and rep? What is progressive overload? What's the difference between volume and intensity? What does it actually mean to strength train ? Matt and Dylan discuss, so that as you prepare to workout you're up to speed and prepared to get after it.