Andy Galpin
Exercise physiologist · Perform podcast
Professor with a PhD in human bioenergetics and executive director of the Human Performance Center at Parker University. His research there covers skeletal muscle physiology. Athletes he has coached come from the NFL, MLB, UFC, NBA, PGA, boxing, the Olympics and military special forces. On Perform he works through training, fueling, sleep and recovery, usually separating what an ordinary person can do from what the best in the world are doing. He co-founded Absolute Rest and BioMolecular Athlete.
- Listen on Apple Podcasts, Perform with Dr. Andy Galpin, podcasts.apple.com (opens in a new tab)
- Website, andygalpin.com (opens in a new tab)
- Podcast, performpodcast.com (opens in a new tab)
- YouTube, youtube.com (opens in a new tab)
- X, x.com (opens in a new tab)
- Instagram, instagram.com (opens in a new tab)
- Entries
- 25
- Does
- 16
- Recommends
- 9
- Discusses
- 0
Supplements
7 supplements in this stack
- SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.Sponsor, disclosed
Protein powder
Whey sits in what he calls his big three, the supplements he says he uses most, both personally and with clients. After a three-hour night he doubles the protein scoop on purpose, so there is less physical room for the burgers and fries the day pulls him toward.
Source: Perform: How to Boost Your Metabolism & Burn FatView item: Protein powderOn record from 18 of 62 tracked people: 13 do it, 3 recommend it, 2 have discussed it - SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Caffeine
A single shot of espresso covers his whole day. Anything in the afternoon has to be decaf or close to it, and he says the dozen or so nootropics he has tried beyond caffeine flatten him, while most of the people he coaches do fine on them.
Source: Perform: Dr. Tommy Wood: Enhancing Brain Performance & Preventing DementiaView item: CaffeineOn record from 14 of 62 tracked people: 10 do it, 1 recommends it, 3 have discussed it - SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.Sponsor, disclosed
Creatine monohydrate
Takes at least seven to 10 grams a day, above the three to five grams most protocols name. Strength and brain-health data are what he cites. The brand he uses, Momentous, is the show's presenting sponsor.
Source: Perform: How to Reach Your Fitness Goals (Hard-to-Grow Muscles, Lose Fat, Busy Schedule & More)View item: Creatine monohydrateOn record from 12 of 62 tracked people: 10 do it, 2 recommend it - SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.Sponsor, disclosed
Electrolyte supplementation
Featured LMNT in a YouTube hydration series back in 2020, long before the podcast existed. He uses the citrus and watermelon flavors to pre-hydrate before a long day out. His caveat: 1,000 mg of sodium a packet is a lot, and may be way too much for anyone who barely sweats or already eats plenty of salt. LMNT sponsors Perform.
Source: Perform: Avoid Fitness Plateaus, Overtraining & Mis-Timed Performance PeaksView item: Electrolyte supplementationOn record from 12 of 62 tracked people: 12 do it - SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.Sponsor, disclosed
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA)
Puts his own fish oil habit at 15 years or more. Third-party testing for lead and mercury is what he checks first. He also warns that some brands pad a label with non-EPA and DHA oils to keep the fish oil count high and the active ingredients low. Momentous sponsors the podcast.
Source: Perform: Avoid Fitness Plateaus, Overtraining & Mis-Timed Performance PeaksView item: Omega-3 (EPA/DHA)On record from 9 of 62 tracked people: 8 do it, 1 recommends it - SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.Sponsor, disclosed
Prebiotic fiber supplement
A scoop of cinnamon prebiotic fiber goes into water every night, covering whatever his food missed that day. He frames it as topping up a whole-food diet rather than replacing one. Momentous, which makes it, is the presenting sponsor.
Source: Perform: Build Mental Toughness & Perform Under PressureView item: Prebiotic fiber supplementOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.Sponsor, disclosed
Protein bars
Bars close the gap between the protein target he sets and what most people manage from meals. He rates David as the best-tasting one he has eaten. David sponsors the show.
Source: Perform: Enhancing Bone Health at Every AgeView item: Protein barsOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it
Gear
6 pieces of gear in this stack
- GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.Sponsor, disclosed
Eight Sleep
Says he has slept on a temperature-controlled mattress cover for more than three years and hates traveling away from it. He runs hot at night, or as his wife puts it, he is a furnace, and without the cooling he wakes up overheated in the middle of the night. Eight Sleep sponsors the podcast.
Source: Perform: Build Mental Toughness & Perform Under PressureVisit eightsleep.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 3 of 62 tracked people: 3 do it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Air bike
An assault bike is one of his own hard conditioning options, next to interval work and running hills. On a bad-sleep day he drops all three and walks instead.
Source: Perform: How to Boost Your Metabolism & Burn FatView item: Air bikeOn record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it, 1 recommends it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Mouth tape
Uses mouth tape a lot, and offers it as the cheap first thing to try when snoring is wrecking someone's sleep. Sometimes that step alone solves the problem, he says. When it does not, the next step he names is usually a sleep study.
Source: Perform: How to Enhance Performance With Better SleepView item: Mouth tapeOn record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it, 1 has discussed it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Nasal dilator strips
Runs nasal dilators alongside the tape so air still moves through the nose overnight. He treats the pair as one intervention, and reports a lot of success with it on snoring specifically.
Source: Perform: How to Enhance Performance With Better SleepView item: Nasal dilator stripsOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.Sponsor, disclosed
Performance activewear
Rhone is his favorite activewear brand in the world, he says, and he is neurotic about how fabric feels, which is why he settled on one label. Rhone sponsors Perform, and he states on air that he uses the sponsors' products himself.
Source: Perform: Build Muscle Size, Strength & Power With Science-Backed ProgramsView item: Performance activewearOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Heart rate monitor
Anyone who cannot measure blood lactate has enough with a heart rate monitor and a stopwatch, he says. Run a two-mile test or a 30-minute effort, plug the number into published tables, and the threshold estimate gets close.
Source: Perform: How Lactate & Metabolism Influence PerformanceView item: Heart rate monitorOn record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it, 2 recommend it
Apps
1 app in this stack
- AppRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.Sponsor, disclosed
RP Hypertrophy App
Listeners who want a written lifting program get pointed at Renaissance Periodization rather than at building one themselves, with the companion diet app mentioned alongside. RP sponsors the show, and he stops short of saying he trains on it.
Source: Perform: Avoid Fitness Plateaus, Overtraining & Mis-Timed Performance PeaksVisit rpstrength.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
Books
1 book in this stack
- BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Daniels' Running Formula
Runners who cannot measure lactate directly get sent to Jack Daniels, whose VDOT number turns one race result into training paces and predicted times at other distances. The tables have been around a long time and are all over the internet, he notes.
Source: Perform: How Lactate & Metabolism Influence PerformanceView item: Daniels' Running FormulaOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
Protocols
7 entriesStructured routines and practices with a defined method.
Eats almost exclusively wild game. Meat from Maui Nui is on his plate close to every day, and he flags his own involvement with the company in the same breath.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Performance Coach Andy Galpin, Rebooting Tim's Sleep, Nutrition, Supplements, and Training for 2024 (#716)He splits the two reasons to lift. Push-ups and sit-ups can drive hypertrophy if that is what you have; strength pushes you toward barbells, dumbbells and machines you can actually load. On fat loss he reads the evidence as lifting keeping weight off rather than taking it off.
Source: Perform: The Fundamentals of Training for Muscle, Strength & LongevityOne gram of protein per pound of body weight is the figure he keeps returning to, for muscle, recovery and staying full. He accepts in the same sentence that most people find it hard to reach from meals alone.
Source: Perform: Dr. Herman Pontzer: How We Really Burn Calories & Lose WeightHis countdown for fat loss: five active days, four structured workouts, three of them sweaty, two genuinely hard, one long and easy. Being active and working out are not the same thing, he insists. Fat loss programs that succeed probably land near that shape, he says.
Source: Perform: The Fundamentals of Training for Muscle, Strength & LongevityPut a stimulus on any muscle you want to grow at least every 72 hours. He calls it dumbing the idea down on purpose, and says some protocols break the rule, which he would rather come back to once the rule itself is understood.
Source: Perform: The Fundamentals of Training for Muscle, Strength & LongevityThe equation is his, and Andrew Huberman named it after him.
Source: Perform: The Fundamentals of Nutrition, Hydration & Performance FuelingThree to five days, exercises, sets, reps and minutes of rest. He credits the heuristic to work going back about 80 years and offers it as a rough starting point for strength and power, not as a finished program.
Source: Perform: The Fundamentals of Training for Muscle, Strength & Longevity
Habits
3 entriesRecurring behaviors recorded in public statements.
When sleep has been short he abandons the hard session and gets three or four ten-minute walks in instead. Almost anyone can walk when exhausted, he says, and the low-level movement adds up if bad nights are frequent.
Source: Perform: How to Boost Your Metabolism & Burn FatThird on his own list of responses to a bad night, and the one he expects to surprise people. Thirty, 60 or 90 minutes that improves the next ten hours beats grinding through the day making worse food choices.
Source: Perform: How to Boost Your Metabolism & Burn FatOvernight breathing rate is the number he watches on himself. More than about one and a half breaths per minute above his average means something happened that night, he says. He feels it moves before HRV or resting heart rate, while admitting the data behind that is thin.
Source: Perform: Avoid Fitness Plateaus, Overtraining & Mis-Timed Performance Peaks
In their own words
Checked word for word against the linked source
“Maui Nui is fantastic. I feel like I eat it almost every day at this point. I eat almost exclusively wild game. That’s what I do.”
The Tim Ferriss Show: Performance Coach Andy Galpin, Rebooting Tim's Sleep, Nutrition, Supplements, and Training for 2024 (#716) (opens in a new tab) · 20 Jan 2024 “I use it a ton, especially using a combination of nasal dilators, so either nasal strips or something like that to open up your nasal passageways, as well as mouth tape.”
Perform: How to Enhance Performance With Better Sleep (opens in a new tab) · 10 Jul 2024 On Mouth tape
“If I wake up and my respiratory rate is more than probably one and a half breaths per minute higher than my average, 100% something happened that night, or I’m getting sick, or something else happens.”
Perform: Avoid Fitness Plateaus, Overtraining & Mis-Timed Performance Peaks (opens in a new tab) · 24 Jul 2024 “I will dumb this down sometimes to what I call the 72-hour rule, meaning every 72 hours or so, try to put a stimulus on the muscle you want to grow.”
Perform: The Fundamentals of Training for Muscle, Strength & Longevity (opens in a new tab) · 22 Jul 2026 On 72-hour rule
“It is one of the most researched supplements in the world and has demonstrated benefits, which is why I make sure to take at least seven to 10 grams a day.”
Perform: How to Reach Your Fitness Goals (Hard-to-Grow Muscles, Lose Fat, Busy Schedule & More) (opens in a new tab) · 19 Aug 2026
Episodes from the feed
Show archive, Perform with Dr. Andy Galpin (opens in a new tab)Last fetched . A title without a link is an episode the feed publishes no page of its own for.
- Female Training, Hormones & Nutrition: What the Science Shows (opens in a new tab)
- Using Sleep to Enhance Performance (opens in a new tab)
- How to Properly Taper & Peak for Performance (opens in a new tab)
- Nutrition to Support Brain Health & Offset Brain Injuries (opens in a new tab)
- How to Increase Muscle Size & Strength (opens in a new tab)
Stack notes are paraphrased. Anything in quotation marks is a short excerpt copied from the transcript it links to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.