This week we are joined by Ryan Munsey, a former athlete turned bestselling author. Ryan started his career with a degree in dietetics, and along the way, worked as a personal trainer, a nutritionist, and even a fitness model.

Today, however, in addition to writing, he hosts The Optimal Performance Podcast, runs the House of Strength training facility in Roanoke, Virginia, AND, on top of all of that, serves as the Chief Optimizer of Natural Stacks, a supplement and nootropic company.

He’s been featured in Men’s Fitness, CBS, FOX, ESPN Radio, and many more.

Ryan and I really hit it off during the episode, and you can definitely tell that we’re cut from the same cloth. The episode runs the gamut – from nootropics, to diet and nutrition, to supplementation, and more. A lot of the things Ryan shared, I had never even heard about before, and I found myself learning a lot more than even I expected. I can confidently say that after hearing this episode, you’ll have a much better grasp on how to boost your mental and physical performance.

By the way, there’s no official sponsor for this episode, because in our post-episode de-brief, Ryan was kind enough to offer us a special discount code for listeners of this podcast. To take advantage of that discount – and to help us pay for the expenses associated with producing this episode, simply visit https://jle.vi/naturalstacks and use the coupon code superhuman at checkout – or click the link in the blog post at becomingasuperhuman.com.

And now, without further adieu, let me present to you, Ryan Munsey.

This episode is brought to you by my new online course, Become a SuperHuman, where you'll learn how to dramatically transform your health. Click this link for a special discount!

In this episode, we discuss:

• Who is Ryan Munsey, and how did he get to where he is today?
• How and why Ryan became disenchanted and distrustful of the nutrition industry
• What was Ryan's life like as a model in New York City, and why did he leave it?
• What is the diet framework that Ryan subscribes to and recommends to his clients?
• Is it worthwhile training to maintain extremely lean body fat / having ripped abs?
• The 6-axes of abdominal movement, and why most people train their abs improperly
• Why insulin is so important for improving and manipulating your body's performance
• Which supplements does Ryan Munsey personally take?
• What is CILTEP, why's it effective, and why doesn't it have any stimulants or chemicals in it?
• Magnesium L-threanate: why and how it's the only magnesium that benefits the brain
• Why not all types of magnesium are created equally
• What are some of the best performance hacks that Ryan Munsey has discovered through his podcast?
• How can you determine what your natural brain chemistry leans towards?
• An explanation of dopamine, serotonin, acetyl-choline, and GABA
• What are 2 or 3 things that Ryan Munsey suggests you do THIS WEEK to improve your performance?
• What is the Pomodoro Method and how does it work?

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Natural Stacks
  • CILTEP Nootropic
  • MagTech
  • Krill Oil
  • Curcumin
  • Vitamin D3
  • Smart Caffeine
  • Dopamine Brain Food
  • Serotonin Brain Food
• The Optimal Performance Podcast
• Abs for Athletes by Ryan Munsey
• The Nutrition Blueprint by Ryan Munsey
• Our previous conversation with Brad Pilon
• Bulletproof coffee
• Our previous episode with Jimmy Moore
• Longecity forums
• Mark Sisson
• Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
• The Braverman Test
• The Edge Effect by Eric Braverman
• Alpha GPC
• The Pomodoro Method
• Natural Stacks: Instagram / Twitter
• Ryan Munsey: Instagram / Twitter

Favorite Quotes from Ryan Munsey:

Transcript:

Introduction: Welcome to the Becoming SuperHuman Podcast, where we interview extraordinary people to bring you the skills and strategies to overcome the impossible. And now here's your host, Jonathan Levi.

Jonathan Levi: Before we get started, I just want to let you guys know that this week's episode is brought to you by my new online course, Become A SuperHuman. And yes, it sounds exactly like the title of the podcast, but this is actually an online course where we go into the various aspects of improving your health.

Specifically your endocrine health more specifically? Yes. More specifically. Yeah. Getting your testosterone up to the optimal levels. Now whether you're a male or a female, as we've learned in numerous episodes of the show to starstone is the ultimate feel-good motivation, improved health, improved fitness, and improved body composition.

Superdrug. Okay. So everything from your mood to your recovery time and everything in between is affected by your body's endocrine health and what my team and I have done is we've actually taken years of my own self-experimentation, years of research. Every possible literature and study we could find, and we've condensed it into a simple three to four-hour program that you can follow along and make simple, safe, and easy adjustments to your lifestyle to improve your endocrine health.

Now, as listeners of this podcast, you can get a very special discount by visiting. JLE.VI/T that's JLEVI, just like my name slash T for testosterone.

Greeting, SuperFriends, and welcome. Welcome to today's show, you guys. This week, we are joined by Ryan Munsey. A former athlete turned best-selling author.

Ryan started his career with a degree in dietetics and along the way, he worked as a personal trainer, a nutritionist, and even get this a fitness model today. However, in addition to his writing, he also hosts. The optimal performance podcast. And he runs the house of strength training facility in Roanoke, Virginia.

And on top of all of that, he serves as the chief optimizer of natural stacks, a supplement, and nootropic company that's been recommended by none other than Tim Ferris. He's been featured in men's fitness, CBS, FOX, ESPN radio, and many, many more. Ryan, and I really, really hit it off during this episode. And you can definitely tell that we are cut from the same cloth.

The episode really runs the gamut guys from nootropics to diet and nutrition, supplementation, and so much more. And a lot of the things that Ryan shared, I'd actually never even heard before in 90 episodes. So I found myself learning really a lot more than even I expected. I can confidently say that.

After hearing this episode, you will have a much better grasp on really just how to boost your mental and physical performance overall, by the way, guys, there's no official sponsor for this episode because in our post-episode, debrief, Ryan was actually kind enough to offer a special discount code for listeners of this podcast on any of the products that natural stacks offers.

So to take advantage. Of that discount and also to help us pay for the expenses associated with producing this episode, simply visit J L e.vi/natural stacks. And use the coupon code is superhuman at checkout or click the link in the blog post at becomingasuperhuman.com. And now without. Any further ado. Let me present to you, Mr. Ryan Munsey.

Mr. Ryan. Munsey, welcome to the show, my friend I've. So been looking forward to speaking with you today. 

Ryan Munsey: Jonathan. Thanks for having me on. Looking forward to it. 

Jonathan Levi: Absolute pleasure, man. Absolute pleasure. It turns out I tried your product like a year ago or one of your products maybe more a year and a half ago.

And I didn't put two and two together until I went to research for this episode. So hopefully we'll get into that a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. So Ryan walk us through just to get us started your bio a little bit and how you got to where you are today. I noticed you're a bit of a Renaissance man in the health industry.

Ryan Munsey: Yeah. So I guess my official title right now with natural stacks is a chief optimizer. And I am the host of our podcast, the optimal performance podcast. But I guess if we go back to college, I went to Clemson university. I got a degree in food science and human nutrition. At that point, I'd been an athlete my entire life.

I just wasn't good enough to play in college. And I did the whole. You know, frat guy thing for a little while in college. And then I was like, all right, I got to get back to, you know, working out, being active, whatever. And it just, that was the Genesis of kind of going down this rabbit hole. I started reading everything I could on how to train, and how to eat.

And the more I read about, you know, Hey, you can do these things to manipulate your body, get the results you want at that time. The word biohacking didn't exist, but that became my passion to kind of play with these variables, these things that you can do and make your body change, make your brain change.

Make your performance improve. I actually changed majors. I wanted exercise physiology or something like that. Clemson didn't have it. So I did food science and human nutrition. I'm basically an RD, but I did not do the internship after school because I disagree with it. Basically, everything that we were taught in nutrition, I was going to ask.

Yeah. Wheatley counter to, you know, the things that I preach now and the things that people like Mark Sisson and Robb Wolf, who you had on the show before I was hearing that stuff in the science side of school. Yeah. But then, you know, when you would take your, your nutrition classes and, you know, obviously that curriculum is paid for, for by big food, you know, it just didn't fit.

So, you know, I didn't want to do the internship I got into lifting, uh, was into bodybuilding and did a couple of shows while I was still in college and had somebody tell me, you know, look you're way too tall and your face is conducive to modeling. So you should try to be a model. And I was like, you know, if someone's going to pay me to lift weights and try to look good naked, I'm not going to say no to that.

So I went to New York, I had contract, I did some fashion and fitness modeling there. It wasn't really the lifestyle that I wanted to live. It was very superficial and was there for about a year, started personal training and working with other models there on helping them with [00:07:00] nutrition. And then that kind of snowballed into, Hey, I really want to do this personal training thing.

And then that, you know, the more I did that, the more I read, the more I started writing for fitness magazines and things like that. I just said, Hey, I'm going to start my own gym. Cause there's a better way than just being a personal trainer at a big box fitness center. So that was 2012. I started my own gym called a house of strength.

I closed slash and moved away from that at the end of 2015, as the natural stacks stuff was really getting bigger and growing. And, you know, like I said, I came in to do the podcast with natural stacks and my role has just grown and evolved into this chief optimizer role where, you know, on any given day I get to talk to law enforcement, military people, or Olympic athletes or CEOs, you know, memory champions.

I get to talk to. All kinds of different people who are into self-optimization and help them dial in what they're doing for optimal performance. And I mean, like you said, it's kind of a Renaissance, you know, it's every tool in the toolkit because I mean, at the end of the day, my passion, my obsession is.

I'm just obsessed with like the human body and what it can do. So I want to learn every single thing, every single way that we can manipulate that and coax maximum performance. 

Jonathan Levi: And I love that. And I think you probably figured out why I was asking the question in such a way because I was trying to kind of put you in a box.

So I knew how to spin the episode. And I was like, I can't figure out what I should say in the intro that you're an expert in. So I guess the better way to ask the question is like, what do you feel is your superpower?

Ryan Munsey: Yeah. So if anyone knows me personally, you know, that like I refuse to be cornered or boxed in or fits and hold.

And I think that's just, it is like, I think if I had to narrow down my superpower, it's just, if we can cuss on the show, it's just making shit happen. Or I think it comes from my biggest fear. And for me, my biggest fear is no longer being in existence. You know, every expert that we've talked to and on our show and.

You hear so many people say that, you know, people on their death bed regret the things that they didn't do, not the things that they did. And I guess I just have this irrational fear of, you know, ceasing to exist and not getting to experience all the things that this life can potentially offer. So. I just want to do it all, man.

I want to learn every single thing that I can learn. I want to experience everything that I can possibly experience. I want to do it with the most positive, you know, coolest people that I can associate with. And I want to help as many other people as possible. Do that very thing. So if that's a superpower, I guess that's mine.

Jonathan Levi: Yeah, man. I think you've come to the right place because that's what we're all about. That's what the whole show is about. Cool. Yeah. So Ryan, I want to ask along the way you've written a couple of books, which I have to say, it's been a really busy few years for you, but you've written apps for athletes and the nutrition blueprint.

So as you, you said yourself a little bit earlier, we've talked to a whole bunch about diet nutrition in the past. So feel free to kind of hit the high notes here, but I guess what is the diet that you subscribe to an advocate with your clients and in your work? 

Ryan Munsey: Yeah. So I think on the highest, like most zoomed out level when it comes to diet.

So I consider myself a health professional, and I was having this conversation a couple of times in the last few weeks where, you know, we have more health professionals. In our world today than we've ever had. You know, if you think back to like 1960, the idea of being a health professional was like, you were a professional sports coach.

You were a gym teacher, you were a doctor like that, was it. Totally. And if you look at the number of health experts that we have now, whether they're actually experts or just social media experts, we have more of them than we've ever had. And health continues to decline in the average person and obesity rates continue to increase.

So. There's a disconnect there. And in short, we are failing as health professionals to get our message to the people that we're supposed to be, that we're charged with helping. And to me, the message that we need to be communicating to the people. Who don't have this knowledge is that, you know, we are way more sedentary as a population than we've ever been?

We consume way more calories than we ever have because right. We have an increased availability of food, the insurance of food. Now, I mean, a hundred years ago, you could not walk across the street and get a hamburger at midnight. Totally. So the availability to food, I mean, there are advantages to this, but there are also considerations that we need to be aware of in terms of how it affects the average person and the average person's life.

So for me, that's kind of what I just said is all kind of setting the stage. And I think what we need to be aware of in terms of how we eat is, is simply to be more aware. Most adults don't know how to feed themselves. Like we know how to eat. We don't know how to feed ourselves. So, you know, I am. An advocate of eating as few carbohydrates over your lifespan as possible.

I'm not anti-carbs. I'm not 100% keto, but there is a minimum effective dose and that dose is different for every person it's based on. The intensity with which you train and how frequently you do it. So for example, a professional or, you know, a high-level CrossFitter who's training at a high intensity with a high frequency is going to need more carbohydrates than the average person.

So we need to look at nutrition in that way or our diets in that way. And we need to eat higher quality foods. I don't think enough people. Prioritize quality. We're seeing it in our movement. So most people that listen to your show that are in your space or our space are aware of the importance of grass-fed beef, wild, caught fish, pasture, raised eggs, and things like that, but the average person isn't, it's growing.

And it's really cool to see that tide kind of rising. I think we're, we're in a situation where, you know, the more that tide rises and the more it's going to float all of our ships, you know, whether you're in the. Organic coffee business, or, you know, health and brain supplements or whatever it may be. So the more we educate people on that, the healthier the world becomes.

So I think hopefully that kind of gives you an idea of the way I eat it's or what I would prescribe. I mean, it's very individual high-quality food, minimum effective dose on carbohydrates. I'm a fan of. A high-fat diet, low to no bullshit. You know, whether it's processed foods or, you know, things that come in a package, we can pretty much sum it up with a quote from Jack Lane, if man-made it donate it.

Jonathan Levi: Yup. I love it. I love it. And I forget who it was on the show who said that. It was something like, you know if God made it eat it, if man made it don't and we had a guest on the show who talked about this and I'm totally blanking on, I mean, we've had so many folks say basically that it's such a recurring message.

Everyone said it in one form or another. And I think that just serves to drive home. How important it is. Although I do have to ask you, you know, as someone who's written abs for athletes, I have to admit that I used to work really, really hard towards this goal of having ripped abs. And then I talked to Brad Pilon and he basically made the point that you have no idea how unpleasant and unhappy you will be and how unsustainable it is to keep your body fat at eight to 10%.

So I've kind of just settled in at 11 to 12, and I have this kind of rough. Outline thing going on, but I have a feeling that since you wrote a book about abs that you disagree, and then in fact, you think it is relatively sustainable to practically maintain a low enough body fat to actually have abs, or is it?

Really super difficult if you're not an athlete full-time 

Ryan Munsey: well, let me give you a little bit of background on that book and the cover picture, and that background may make the answer a little more clear. Okay. So remember I was a model I did get paid. To be photographed in my underwear. So as unpleasant as the lifestyle may be to maintain that, you know, that is the lifestyle of living in New York City and being a fashion and fitness model.

But like I said earlier, that's not a lifestyle that I wanted. For the rest of my life. So the picture, I think, I don't remember when I wrote that book abs for athletes, but I wrote it probably in 2011 or 12. That picture was taken when I was modeling in 2008. So it's an old picture and it was taken, you know, when I was kind of at my peak of, you know, how lean I was and yes, at that time, my priority was.

How I looked in photographs. That's not my priority today and it's not most people's priority. Totally. So I think when we talk about, you know, how should you eat? How should you train? How should you live your life? It's gold-dependent, you know, what do you really want to get out of this? And if you're a professional model, if you get paid for the way you look, well, certainly, you know, your priorities are a little bit different than the rest of us.

You know, I'm not that lean today. But I think through a lot of experimentation since then, and gosh, that's almost eight years ago. I have found ways to maintain something close to that level of leanness, but without the miserable lifestyle and the sacrifice that it takes, you also have to keep in mind that for photo shoots, you know, we do, what's called Peking the same way, a bodybuilder peaks for a competition.

So there's a lot of water manipulation to make the skin look in glycogen, super compensation to make the muscles pop. So if you saw me. Back in the day before that photo was taken or the day after I probably didn't look that sharp or that dialed in. So there's a big difference between the way, you know, people look in their photographs and the way they look in real life.

But I think Brad is a hundred percent correct. You know, I do not try to maintain that insane level of leanness anymore. And I think it is its goal dependent. So you know what we do with our. How we structure what we eat and when we eat, how we structure our workouts, you know, I am a big proponent of advising that those things enhance the rest of your life outside of the gym, outside of the kitchen, as opposed to dictating it or detracting from it.

That's essentially what you're saying, you know, to maintain six, 7% body fat, you know, that becomes your life. And it does have negative impacts on, you know, things outside of your life or outside of the gym in the kitchen. A bit about that book. I mean, that was written because at the time I was actually training athletes.

You know, if I just put a picture of, you know, how to train or, I mean, look, we know that that type of picture sells. If you want an ad book, put a picture of those abs on the front and that's, what's going to get people to pick it up and read it. And that's what I wanted. I wanted people to read it because what I wrote about in the book is still the same way that I talk to people about training your abs and you know, just real quick when people train their abs.

90% of the AB exercises that most people name off the top of their head are flection, meaning that the sternum and the pelvis are coming together. But if we look at what's wrong with our posture, we are kind of hunched over we're in that flection position. So, you know, in the book, I really just made the point that, you know, our abs have six movement planes, but we only train in one of them.

And it's the one that we need to. Basically get away from, you know, to get away from that hunched-over position at the computer. So that was the point of the book. And I just put that picture on the cover, because like I said, I knew it would get people to pick it up. 

Jonathan Levi: Well, I think that's a really, really valid point.

And I think, you know, Even if you go to a more functional exercise regimen, you're still not getting all six axes. I mean, I remember like when someone sat me down and was like, you need to do a plank right now for five minutes. It's just the pain in the places that I've never experienced pain. And then I realized like how limited all my AB exercise quote unquote had been up until that point.

Ryan Munsey: Right. So, and just in case people aren't familiar with those six, so you have flection, which is sternum and pelvis coming together, and then you have something like a plank, which would be anti-selection. So you're resisting that flection there's rotation, and then there's lateral flection. So lateral flection is like, you think about like the person doing that side to side like that, you know?

So then we have with rotation, we also have. Anti-rotation your ability to maintain a stable position and not be rotated by an external force and then anti lateral flection, which was, it's just like a side plank. So right there, there's your stuff explains. And that's what I was explaining in the book so that people could get, you know, and if you're an athlete and you only train in one plane emotion, it doesn't carry over to what you're trying to do in sport.

Sport is not, you know, a one-plane thing. 

Jonathan Levi: Yeah, absolutely. So I really like that really quickly, cause I don't want to go just into abs, you know, and we do have limited time, but yeah. Well, you mentioned some other tips that you give for keeping body fat low. Is that just kind of your typical, low-carb, lots of water deal or is there something else there you'd like to share?

Ryan Munsey: Well, it's all about insulin. If you can understand the role that insulin plays in the body, you can manipulate energy levels. You can facilitate fat loss and stay lean. You can also keep your mind functioning. Clearly, and in that sharp, fast way that we all want, you can also, there's a lot of studies that show.

So right now, over 50% of the US this is a new study that came out in the last month. Over 50% of the US is insulin resistant. And that means that we've eaten too many carbohydrates over our life. And that our body has basically down-regulated or habituated to insulin, and it takes more of it than our pancreas can really produce.

And we're not, we're not responsive to it. So, this is actually, there's a correlation between insulin resistance and Alzheimer's so, you know, we're seeing now that a lot of the cognitive issues that people are experiencing later in life are actually diet and lifestyle. You know, there's a causation and a correlation between diet and lifestyle and, you know, Later life, cognitive decline.

So we know anybody who's tried intermittent fasting or skipping breakfast or Bulletproof coffee, you know, how fast your brain feels on that morning and how clearly you think and how sharp everything is that increased focus. You know, imagine being able to have that benefit in the short term, but also for the long-term right.

You're protecting brain, you know, there's a neuroprotective aspect to that. So for me, It's all about controlling insulin, because there are so many positives. Everything that we want comes from keeping insulin. I call it time under the insulin curve. If you can minimize the amount of time that you spend under the insulin curve over any given day and over your lifespan, then you will be leaner.

You will have more energy. Because as insulin spikes up and down, you know, that's where you get these like energy, you know, the sugar rush and then the crash and you also have, uh, brain health for life. So that would be my tip. 

Jonathan Levi: I love it. And it's funny just before this, I recorded the prior week's episode and we talked about this exact same thing with someone who was talking about reversing Alzheimer's so you're spot on.

Right. And I just want to drive the point home, not to say like, yeah, yeah, we've heard it, but to say, okay, This regimen of like, Hey, eat a lot of medium chain triglycerides, eat a lot of fat. Get into ketosis, and regulate your insulin will not only lower your body fat, improve your focus, reduce Alzheimer's risk.

The list just goes on and on and on and on and on and on. So if anyone out there doesn't get it yet, like. You need to get on the KIDO train as soon as possible. 

Ryan Munsey: Yeah. This is just continuing to pile up and it's so great to see that, you know, like I said, when I was in college, I saw it in the science classes, but then in the nutrition classes, they're teaching something completely different.

So, you know, even back then I was eating whole eggs and, you know, using grass-fed butter and loading up on nuts and things like that. You know, all my classmates are like, aren't you worried about getting fat? I'm like, aren't you paying attention? And, you know, anatomy and physiology and biochemistry. And they're like, no, I'm just listening to what my overweight, you know, sick nutrition teacher tells me I had the same experience at Berkeley and I just eventually was like, this is ridiculous.

Jonathan Levi: Like we're at one of the finest institutions in the world. And this woman's explaining to me why. The human body must have enough carbohydrates or the body can't produce ATP. I'm like, yep. That's absolute bullshit. 

Ryan Munsey: Yeah. Like, were you not paid attention in metabolism class?

Jonathan Levi: It's unreal for the record. I haven't had any carbohydrates today. I'm fully in ketosis and I feel freaking phenomenal. 

Ryan Munsey: Nice, nice. That's a great, yep.

Jonathan Levi: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You know, Jimmy from keto clarity and live in Levita, low-carb said on the show, he's like, if you could bottle this as a drug, it'd be the best-selling drug in the world. I think that's probably true.

Yeah. On the note of drugs and supplements. I mean, I know now you're at natural stacks and so you're pretty well known in the world of supplementation. So I guess the first of the many questions I'd like to ask is which ones do you personally take and why. 

Ryan Munsey: Ooh, man. That's a good one. So I take CILTEP most days CILTEP is our flagship nootropic, it boosts, focus and memory.

It's a really phenomenal product. We actually have a patent on it. The cool thing about, you know, like I said, it increases focus and memory. So what I experience when I'm taking it is, you know, on the days I take it, I just have this incredibly, I'm a curious person by nature, but I think it facilitates that and increases my curiosity

So I have this desire to, you know, dig further down into those rabbit holes. You know, I really get. Into whatever it is and I'm doing so that's how it increases focus. And on the memory side, it actually increases LTP or long-term potentiation. So I'm sure on your show, you've had some memory folks talk about, you know, how we process memories, how we catalog things, but this is a novel, it's an easy way for anybody to be able to boost the efficiency with which we store and catalog information.

And the cool thing is that. 'cause it's, it's like, think of it like a library, you're filing things in an inappropriate way, and then you're better able to recall them later. So it's like if I had to study for a test and I was using CILTEP while I was studying, even if I don't have CILTEP in my system on the day of taking the test, those memories are there.

So cell types are really cool nootropic in the sense that those transient short-term benefits, but you also have long-term benefits and interesting. And that's something that like, so that it's like, you know, if you can drink coffee one day, like the benefits of drinking it today, aren't with you tomorrow.

The feeling of being on stage, in fact, right. And the feeling of CILTEP won't be with you tomorrow, but that information is still there. So it basically allows you to build a bigger library faster, with more efficient cataloging in your brain. And that's what I really love about it. 

Jonathan Levi: Wow. Okay. I want to dig into that a little bit more.

Verda are there any other supplements that either you take or you recommend to coaching clients? 

Ryan Munsey: Yeah. Short answer is yes. I'm trying not to go into all of them. I do take a lot. I'm real big on the basics. Our MagTek is a great product. I can tell you why in a minute, but I take MagTek. I take krill oil. I take her cumin.

Vitamin D I mean, these are the things that I'm sure most of your guests have talked about the importance of sure. But it's like, to me, if you don't have the foundation covered, like to me, CILTEP is kind of like a performance thing and all the others that I take are like setting the foundation. Yeah.

Yeah. So like think of a car, like if you don't have an engine in a wheel and a steering wheel, it's not going anywhere, you know, the CILTEP is the thing that gives you that boost to go from. You know, normal to optimal, uh, you know, there's a difference between surviving and thriving. So, you know, the essentials, the things like curcumin and vitamin D you know, those are the ones that are, like you said, insurance, you know, keeping everything where they're supposed to be.

And in the CILTEP is like, alright, you know, I'm a well-oiled machine, let's get this CILTEP and we'll get that boost. Then, you know, now I'm playing chess while everybody else is playing checkers.

Jonathan Levi: I love it. I love it. Okay, cool. That's solid. So let's dig a little bit into CILTEP, which by the way, is how I first heard about you guys in a surprising way for which I need to congratulate you because it actually came in Tim Ferriss's quarterly box, like years and years ago, which is a huge endorsement because these days you, you never really know a supplement company and there's such little regulation, right?

But if someone like Tim is like, Hey, try this out. Here's a free bottle of it. That's huge. So congrats on that. But I was surprised about one thing, which is there are no real stimulants in it. Right? So no race at Tams. Uh, not even any no caffeine. Why is that? 

Ryan Munsey: So if people are not familiar with it, and this is the really cool thing about CILTEP, it was actually created on the longevity forums as sort of a collaborative effort.

And the final iteration of it was created by a guy named avalard Lindsey. He is our product formulator, and that's how Tim. And actually, Dave Asprey first heard about CILTEP. They were part of that group that was experimenting with it and they knew it and have it before the final version before natural stacks was even kind of a company, you know, and to this day, Dave still sells CILTEP on the Bulletproof website.

They sell it in some of the Bulletproof coffee shops. I think I'm not positive on that one. So that is really cool. There are no stimulants and SOTA because we like to drink coffee. And the natural stacks philosophy is, you know, all of our formulations are, you know, the word stack in our name kind of means, you know, that you can put together.

Components for a synergistic effect to get, you know, benefits greater than the sum of the parts. So, you know, if I wanted to drink Bulletproof coffee and take CILTEP that I can do that, or we have a product called smart caffeine, which is a combination of caffeine and healthy honey. And that combination has been shown to boost mental alertness.

So if you're somebody who wants caffeine, then you would take your preferred. Method or dose of caffeine with CILTEP, you know, so we try to keep our formulas as simple and as concise as possible. We're not like every formula or w we're not making kitchen sink products. And what I mean by that is like, you know, there are some nootropics where people say, Oh, let's take every herb.

That's known to, you know, have an impact on the brain and let's throw it into a supplement. Right? All of our formulations are designed for one specific. Pathway or, or one specific thing function in the brain, like a dopamine brain food or a serotonin brain food. And then we're educating our audience on how and when to best use these tools that are in your toolbox.

And as far as the Rasta Tams go. I mean, that kind of comes back to the first part of our name, natural stacks. I mean, we're by law. We can't have anything that's synthetic in any of our products, but that's something that we chose. We wanted natural stacks to be a company that was about, you know, naturally occurring substances that can have these short-term benefits, but also long-term benefits.

I don't know that we're still positive about the long-term safety of Rasta Tams. I know some people have argued that, you know, maybe they are a little bit more natural than some people first thought, but we have excluded any of those synthetic or man-made things from our products. 

Jonathan Levi: Interesting. So it really is kind of an everyday product that you really reap the benefits of when you take it sustained.

Ryan Munsey: Yes, so like with CILTEP specifically, like I said, I take it most days, the recommended dose is three pills. I actually take one because I'm fairly sensitive. And one for me is the perfect dose with all no tropics, you know, we encourage everyone to experiment. You know, everyone's brain is different, unique and individual.

So you know, some people do well with three. Some people like to, some people do two CILTEP and to dopamine, which gives you kind of that extra kick and boost with motivation and drive. I tend to be very dopamine dominant. And like I said, I'm really curious by nature anyway. So one CILTEP for me is like, you know, that's all I need.

And that's perfect. Like MagTek is one that I mentioned that I take that all the time. I never want to go without that because we've had, there've been several clinical studies on. Magnesium L three and eight, which is it's in our magnesium complex. MagTek, it's the only magnesium that crosses the blood-brain barrier.

It's been shown to increase synapse density within two weeks of views. So for people who may not know like synapse density, why that's a good thing. Your synapses are the way that you're, that's how your neural cells, your brain cells communicate. Imagine those old-school, like cell phone commercials, and they're showing you their coverage maps.

And you see like the one company that has really, you know, sparse coverage. And then the other one that's like incredibly dense coverage. And you know, that leads to better communication, faster communication. I mean, which scent apps image would you want in your 

Jonathan Levi: head? Yeah, absolutely. So I never actually knew that.

I mean, I know magnesium plays a role in like 400 functions in the human body or more actually I think it's 1200 and you need 400 milligrams a day. If you're an adult male. I never knew that brain development was actually one of them, but it makes sense. 

Ryan Munsey: So magnesium threonate was discovered in the UCLA labs while they were searching for Alzheimer's cures.

And it now has a patent. And like I said, it's gone through a couple of clinical studies already. And one of those studies found that not only does it increase in abstinence, the it lowered brain age, by an average of nine years, it turned gray or dying neural cells back to green. And that's how it lowered brain age, but now it's actually in, I think either a second or a third-level clinical trial at Stanford as a potential anti-Alzheimer's medication.

That's crazy. Yeah. We're looking at prescription level benefit just from a magnesium compound. So that's really fascinating. The patent. Is held by a company called AIDP and on our show, we had Dr. Jennifer GU who's the VP of research and development for that company. So this is how we got all this information.

Wow. Yeah. But it's really fascinating. And she was telling us that, like I said earlier, it's the only magnesium that can cross the blood-brain barrier. So most people aren't aware of the brain benefits of magnesium because no other magnesium actually. Boost sprain concentration of magnesium. And if you think about most magnesium is the low-quality ones, like oxide or things like that, you know, they actually have diuretic or, you know, bowel movement properties.

Cause I mean, think about like milk of magnesia it's, uh, you know, go to the bathroom aid. So that was an interesting conversation we had with her. 

Jonathan Levi: Yeah, I bet. Wow. That's so interesting. You know, I just got not recently, but like in the last year I just. Made the realization about oxide versus citrate versus basic glycinate.

And, you know, I threw out the oxide and bought citrate. Then someone explained to me that citrate wasn't that much better than oxide. So I threw out all the citrate and bought BIS glycinate. Now I'm going to have to throw that, you know, I'm constantly learning as much as the audiences. Yeah. 

Ryan Munsey: So our complex, we've got three types of magnesium, L three and eight glycinate and toriod, and the glycinate and the toroid help with the promotion of calm and relaxation, like most magnesiums do. So we recommend taking two doses, one in the afternoon, one in the evening. But for any mineral that you take, whether it's zinc or magnesium, anything like that, you want to look for the key laded form.

That's usually the highest quality and the most bioavailable form. And when I say key laded that's any. Ending that goes with a T E so glycinate or Tori magnesium three and eight of that ending AATE is an indicator for consumers that you're looking at a key laded form of that mineral, and that's going to increase bioavailability.

Jonathan Levi: Right. And that's definitely been my experience because everyone will tell you, magnesium oxide is about 4% absorption. Interesting. Okay, cool. So definitely learning a lot here. Let me ask you this. Your show is called the optimal performance podcast, which by the way, I love, because it sounds like all the guys over at natural stacks are my kind of people, but let me ask you this across all the episodes that you guys have done, what are some of the best performance hacks that you've learned about besides the magnesium tip you just gave and that you continue to use in your daily life?

Ryan Munsey: Oh, man, you put me on the spot as a tough one, right? We put an episode out. We actually, I just published one today. It was episode 71. We've had 71 episodes. It's tough because it's like anything I choose then by definition, I'm excluding other people and we've been really lucky. We've had some amazing guests.

One that stands out to me is I've kind of shifted. You know, my thinking in terms of, you know, I've always kind of been a hard-charging, kind of go-getter. I'm starting to look at guys who've who have some longevity to their careers. And we had Mark Sisson on the show who is an incredible leader in the ancestral health and primal movement scene.

And he's 62 or 63. Yeah. And you know, his advice on two different occasions. His advice to me on the show had been. To slow down. No, everything will be okay. That it will all work out and to enjoy the process. I think that's a mouthful, but I think, you know, that's really good advice from somebody who's been in the game and doing it at a high level for a long time, both in terms of his own performance, but also.

In the way that he's been able to help people and create something that benefits a lot of other people. So I think it's, you know, kind of slow down and make sure you're doing things the right way so that you can be around for a long time. And, you know, obviously, if we're around for 40 or 50 years doing this, we're going to help a whole lot more people than, you know, just a flash in the pan for three years.

Jonathan Levi: I love it. And I think that's a really important message for guys like you and I to hear, because, you know, I'm the kind of guy I want to sit down with somebody today. I sat with a coaching student. And he was telling me about motivation issues with memory. And I was like, all right, well, why don't we memorize all your different credit card numbers in the next 10 minutes?

Like fast results, you know, that's, what's going to get you motivated and everything, but I think you're right. There's something to be said about like being at peace and going slowly. And I think I've with meditation, I've had to. Taken that approach. There's no fast, quick fix to meditation. You're going to sit for hours, weeks, months before you even notice a slight improvement. And I think that's part of the beauty. 

Ryan Munsey: Yeah. And that's, that's another thing that along that same transition, you know, I've, I've started reading, I've read Dao de Jing probably three or four times in the last two years. And I'm really adopting that. More of that is in finding that balance, I guess it's because, you know, I think it sounds like we're very much the same.

We're very dopamine dominant. We have motivation. Doesn't seem to be an issue for either of us. So it's, it's finding that balance point, you know, realizing that it's okay to kind of be in harmony with the way things are. And you know, you can slow down a little bit. And through meditation and that awareness being present.

Yeah. That's probably been a big personal challenge, but it's good advice for folks like us. 

Jonathan Levi: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Now you've said a couple of times that you're very dopamine dominant. How do you know that? I mean, is there some tests that you've done there is, and we use it.

Ryan Munsey: It's called the Braverman test. So Dr. Eric Braverman, he was a clinical psychologist. He wrote the book, the edge effect, and there's a subtitle to it. That's like winning with. You know your brain or it'd be a fascinating book for most of your listeners, but he wrote something called the Braverman test. And if you just go in Google and you type in Braverman test, it will come up.

It'll be the first thing that comes up in Google. It's a PDF. You can print it out and you can take the test and like 10 or 15 minutes, depending on how quickly you run through it. There are two parts to the test. The first part of the test tells you. Neurotransmitter nature. The second part tells you if you have any acute.

Deficiencies in those same for neurotransmitters. The neurotransmitters that he's looking at are dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, and GABA. And the reason that this really fascinates us is that with what we're doing at natural stacks, we have a line of products called brain food, and we have dopamine brain food out right now, as well as serotonin brain food. 

We are a few weeks away from publishing or by the time this podcast publishes, we will probably have launched GABA brain food. And then early 2017, we will launch a Seattle Coleen brain food. So our goal is to have one of these products for each. Specific neurotransmitter pathways to help. Like I said earlier, to help our followers and our customers be able to identify what you need and here's the tool to kind of help bring you back to optimal.

So going back to this test, think about it. Like it's almost like a personality test for your brains settings and. Real quickly on those neurotransmitters. Dopamine is the one that's responsible for, uh, confidence, motivation, assertiveness, stereotypically. If you think about like that type a person that's dopamine on the opposite end of that spectrum is serotonin.

Serotonin is the neurotransmitter that's responsible for controlling mood, fear, anxiety, you know, with our serotonin brain food, a lot of people report. Feeling like they just went and floated, you know, we would all love to go and get in the float tank every day, but that's not realistic for most people.

It's a matter of time and budget. So yeah. You know, serotonin brain food is a healthier alternative, then that post drink or post-work cocktail. Love it. It's a great way to kind of get that positive mood and kind of sets an upper limit on stress levels. And then with Gabba, Gabba is kind of like social bumper cars.

Alcohol works on the GABA pathway. Yep. Anybody who's had one or two drinks in a social setting instantly feels more relaxed. That's what GABA can do for you. And then the final one is acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is responsible for mental processing speed. And that's actually what goes across those synapses that we talked about earlier.

You know, so if you're talking about like hacking the brain and you want. You know, one of my favorite stacks, I take alpha GPC most mornings with my CILTEP when acetylcholine brain food is out, I will have a full stack to take with it. But for the time being, I'm just making do with alpha GPC. But you know, we talk about.

Increasing synapse density with MagTek and then I'm facilitating faster processing speeds with a Coleen and, you know, I'm better focused and better able to catalog my memories with CILTEP. So you talked about it being a pretty productive couple of years for me. No. Tropics had been a big part of that.

Totally. And I know that's, you know, it's part of my job and that's a company I'm with, but that's why because I've seen what it can do for me. So the Braverman test, when I took it, I am part tells you your nature or your dominance. And I think I had a 35 on Coleen and a 34 on dopamine, or maybe it was vice versa.

I don't know. It's been a long time since I took it, but I know that I'm Coleen and dopamine. Dominant. So like I'm very motivated and my brain goes very fast so I can tend to, you know, be a little add or things like that. So I know that's just how my brain works. And it's like, you know if you came to me as a string coach and you said, Hey, this is where I want to go.

I can't draw you a map to get there until I know where you are. So for your folks listening, like your podcast is a lot of about, you know, optimizing brain performance. So it really helps to know where you are. If you have somewhere that you want to be, you know, so you, you're putting that starting point on the map and it's like, okay, this is how I move forward to where I want to go.

Jonathan Levi: Yeah, absolutely. I really need to take this test. It sounds absolutely fascinating. 

Ryan Munsey: You take it, uh, shoot me an email. I'm curious to know what you find out. 

Jonathan Levi: Yeah, I definitely will. I definitely will. So, okay. Wow. We've covered really a lot of ground. You know, I there's so many things I want to ask you. It sounds like we're going to have to do another episode entirely.

I'm fine with that. Awesome. Cool. Cool. So let's go ahead and we're wrapping up here. We've got a few more minutes. Let's go ahead and give the audience a little bit of homework. So I'm sure for a lot of people, there's a lot of low-hanging fruit out there. What are two or three things that the audience can do this week to optimize their mental or physical performance?

Kind of the quick changes, quick shifts that you would advocate. 

Ryan Munsey: Okay. Well, I think if you're looking for really from a homework standpoint, Google Braverman test, and take that, find out where you are, find out, you know, your default settings in your brain, but it'll also tell you if you have any current deficiencies.

Now keep in mind, you know, Braverman was treating people in a clinical setting, you know, with natural stacks. We're not treating people medically. So I have to be careful about saying deficiencies and things like that, but you definitely want to find out your nature. So I think that's a great place for people to start.

Has anybody on your show talked about Pomodoros? 

Jonathan Levi: Yeah. Well, we haven't talked about it so much on the show. I talk about it in my course, but go ahead and touch on it. 

Ryan Munsey: Okay. So this is a concept where you work in short bursts and then take breaks. Typically it's a 25-minute period of work and a five-minute break.

And you repeat that about four times. So you have that cycle continues for about two hours and then you take a longer 20 or 30-minute break. And the idea here is that you never work. To a point of exhaustion or mental overload. So your brain stays fresher longer. And it's really fascinating. The psychological kind of manipulation that goes on when you sit down and instead of looking at this giant thing that you have to accomplish, you've only got this 25-minute block.

So it's almost like you're racing against the time to see how much you can get accomplished or how much of this. You know, big, tedious thing that you can knock out before that 25-minute buzzer goes off. The important thing here is you can get an app on your phone. You can Google it. There's, you know, uh, browser-based timers.

The important thing is when that timer goes off to get up, walk away, take the break, you know, get away from everything and then come back. But you have to be very diligent about those buzzers and that timing. Right? I think it's to kind of piggyback off of that to really help boost productivity. Don't check your email.

Don't be on Facebook, close those browsers, even if it's at all possible, you know, Turn off wifi so that you're not even tempted or doing any of that, depending on what the work is that you're doing. If you can do it without the internet, do it without the internet. So yeah. So, uh, limit distractions, use Pomodoros, keep your brain fresh and take the Braverman so you can figure out, you know, how your brain works.

Jonathan Levi: That's fantastic homework, and I've definitely learned an absolute ton. Ryan, if people want to learn more about you and get in touch with you, where should we send them? Just natural stacks. 

Ryan Munsey: Yeah. So the website is natural stacks.com. Our podcast is optimal performance podcast. You can get it on iTunes or Stitcher.

Let's see social media where everything is at natural stacks, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. And of course, I'm ryanmunsey.com and at Ryan Munsey underscore on Instagram. 

Jonathan Levi: Awesome. So we will put all of those links in the show notes for people to check out. And Ryan, I have just, uh, one last question to wrap up on, which is if people take away just one message and carry it with them for the rest of their lives, what would you hope for that message to be?

Ryan Munsey: That's a great question. This is going to sound really cheesy, very much like a Tony Robbins kind of thing, but it's just, you've got one life, make the most of it and you know, don't let fear stand in your way. Don't worry about how you're going to make things happen. If there's something that you want to do, something that you want to experience, just go for it.

Yeah. Don't worry about the how, and, and, you know, things have a way of working out. So I say, just do what you want to do enjoy and make the most out of the one life that you have choose to be happy, choose to live the most awesome life that you can possibly live. 

Jonathan Levi:That's a fantastic note to end on Ryan.

Thank you so much for spending your time and sharing your wisdom with us. I would love to do another episode where we just talk about. You're learning tips and tricks. Cause I think it's so incredible how you've gone from one industry to another, to being an entrepreneur, to being a podcaster. I mean, you clearly learn a lot very effectively, so I'm going to set the intention that you and I will at some point, do an episode on learning.

Ryan Munsey: How about we, uh, I'll work on getting a master's in neuroscience so we can call it like from Derrick Zoolander to neuroscience. 

Jonathan Levi: I love it. Let's do it.

Ryan Munsey: Jonathan. This has been a blast, man. Thanks for having me. 

Jonathan Levi: My pleasure brother, take care. 

Ryan Munsey: All right. You too.

Jonathan Levi: All right Superfriends, that's it for this week's episode, we hope you really, really enjoyed it and learn a ton of applicable stuff that can help you go out there and overcome the impossible.

If so, please do us a favor and leave us a review on iTunes or Stitcher, or however you found this podcast. In addition to that, we are. Always looking for great guest posts on the blog or awesome guests right here on the podcast. So if you know somebody or you are somebody, or you have thought of somebody who would be a great fit for the show or for our blog, please reach out to us either on Twitter or by email our email is info@becomingasuperhuman.com. Thanks so much. 

Closing: Thanks for tuning in to the Becoming Superhuman Podcast. For more great skills and strategies, or for links to any of the resources mentioned in this episode, visit www.becomingasuperhuman.com/podcast. We'll see you next time.