The Fitness Expert: They’re LYING To You About Building Muscle! | Dr Mike Israetel
Dr Mike Israetel joins Graham Stephan and Jack Selby to test common fitness claims on training, diet, supplements and peptides, and to explain how he earns, spends and invests his money.
The gist
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Israetel says he makes over $1 million a year, spends under about $250,000, and splits his stocks between broad market ETFs and AI-related companies.
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Israetel says sets within three or four reps of failure work, and two 30 to 40 minute paired-set sessions weekly reach about 70% of potential.
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Israetel says most supplements are a waste, except whey, creatine, zinc, magnesium, vitamin D and fish oil; Graham says magnesium helped him sleep deeply.
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Israetel says he used GPT 4.5 to smooth his book's prose and Gemini for images, and advises talking with AI conversationally instead of one perfect prompt.
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Israetel suggests skinny-fat beginners recomp for one to two years, then get lean before bulking so they stay lean and can see progress.
"50% of my stocks are to like broad ETFs cuz I don't typically want to bet too much against the market... The best thing to spend your money on by a long shot I think is general stock market investing."
▶ Play at 20:35"You can do squats and pair it with upright rows... you do every movement you do paired like that, back to back, and you do six movements, it's going to take you about 30 minutes... But 40 minutes twice a week, man, you're going to get in unbelievable shape."
▶ Play at 34:56"False. But you have to get close. Within three, four reps away from failure is where most of the good gains seem to be happening."
▶ Play at 29:54
Graham Stephan uses it
"I started taking magnesium and I was blown away. Like it actually made a difference. And I don't know if it's the specific one that I'm taking, but it legitimately made a difference and I sleep like very deeply now."
▶ Play at 50:4316 creators recommend it, including Andrew Huberman, Mark Hyman, MD, and Rhonda Patrick.
See all on the Magnesium page"Fish oils that are properly attended to. EPA, DHA, healthy fats, omega-3s are not a waste of money."
▶ Play at 49:4616 creators recommend it, including Mark Hyman, MD, Andrew Huberman, and Rhonda Patrick.
See all on the Fish oil page"Gemini logo. I used Gemini's Nano Banana model to make the images for the book. Period. Exactly. What is wrong with that? I don't think there's anything wrong with that."
▶ Play at 1:19:0873 creators recommend it, including Claire Vo, GaryVee, and Dave Blundin.
See all on the Gemini page"I used a since-deprecated model, GPT-4.5, and I used it to do smoothing of prose. So what I would do is write my prose and be like, can you reword this in a way that sounds to me like it would have more of the following emotive features, etc. And it would do a great job... Eve..."
▶ Play at 1:15:13159 creators recommend it, including John Coogan, Riley Brown, and Peter Yang.
See all on the ChatGPT page"Once you get lean, not only is it healthier to bulk because you're not getting super over fat... you start lean and then you go and you bulk and you end pretty lean. And so even at the top of your bulk, you're not disgusting looking... And also you can have this process where ..."
▶ Play at 1:38:58What they recommend · 11 picks
Health & fitness
4 picks · Mike Israetel ·Mike's health & fitness →
"You can do squats and pair it with upright rows... you do every movement you do paired like that, back to back, and you do six movements, it's going to take you about 30 minutes..."
"Once you get lean, not only is it healthier to bulk because you're not getting super over fat... you start lean and then you go and you bulk and you end pretty lean. And so even..."
"I would amend Greg's advice in one way. Start by just recomping for like one to two years. Like you just maintain your body weight, eat plenty of protein, good healthy foods, an..."
AI tools
3 picks · Mike Israetel ·Mike's AI tools →
"I used a since-deprecated model, GPT-4.5, and I used it to do smoothing of prose. So what I would do is write my prose and be like, can you reword this in a way that sounds to m..."
"I love Claude. I'll literally just start a voice memo and I'll just go and go and go, and then I'll say, come back to me with five points... I just start a voice memo, talk for ..."
Supplements
2 picks · Mike Israetel and Graham Stephan
"Fish oils that are properly attended to. EPA, DHA, healthy fats, omega-3s are not a waste of money."
"I started taking magnesium and I was blown away. Like it actually made a difference. And I don't know if it's the specific one that I'm taking, but it legitimately made a differ..."
Other picks
2 picks · Mike Israetel
"50% of my stocks are to like broad ETFs cuz I don't typically want to bet too much against the market... The best thing to spend your money on by a long shot I think is general ..."
"What car is that? A Tesla Model S Plaid. It's the single greatest vehicle I've ever been in."
Mike Israetel
10 picks · guest
"50% of my stocks are to like broad ETFs cuz I don't typically want to bet too much against the market... The best thing to spend your money on by a long shot I think is general ..."
"You can do squats and pair it with upright rows... you do every movement you do paired like that, back to back, and you do six movements, it's going to take you about 30 minutes..."
"I used a since-deprecated model, GPT-4.5, and I used it to do smoothing of prose. So what I would do is write my prose and be like, can you reword this in a way that sounds to m..."
Graham Stephan
1 pick
"I started taking magnesium and I was blown away. Like it actually made a difference. And I don't know if it's the specific one that I'm taking, but it legitimately made a differ..."
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