Coach Dan Greenbaum

Loving this new torq.gear wedge from Eric Janicki IFBB Pro. This quad bias set up is 💰

Most people chase focus like it's a single switch. It isn't.

Attention runs on acetylcholine. Drive runs on dopamine. You need both online or you get half a result. Sharp but unmotivated. Or driven but scattered.

My stack hits both.

Alpha-GPC feeds the acetylcholine side. It's a choline source that actually crosses into the brain and converts to acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that sharpens signal over noise. This is the lens. It's what lets you lock onto the task and tune the rest out. 300mg - 600mg.

L-Tyrosine feeds the dopamine side. It's the raw precursor your brain converts into dopamine and the catecholamines downstream of it. This is the fuel. It's what makes you want to engage, and it holds up under stress, deadlines, and short sleep, exactly when your drive normally craters. 500mg to 2g, empty stomach, away from protein so it isn't fighting for absorption.

One sharpens. One drives. Run them together and you cover both halves of focus instead of one.
Timing matters. I take it in the morning or 30 to 45 minutes ahead of deep work, not after. You want the precursors in place before the demand hits, not chasing it once you're already behind.
This isn't a stimulant. You won't feel launched. You'll feel like the friction is gone.

Nobody trains the lower lat.

Everyone pulls to the collarbone, the elbow flares out, and the work shifts up into the upper back and biceps. The lower fibers never get loaded.

Those lower fibers, the iliac portion, run from your upper arm all the way down to the top of your pelvis. If you want them to grow, two things have to happen.

First, the torso stays locked into the pad. No leaning back, no swinging for momentum. The arm does the work, not the spine.

Second, you drive the elbow down toward your hip, not back toward the floor.
At the very top, in the fully lengthened position, I pause. A full beat with the arm stretched overhead and the lat loaded before I pull.

That pause takes the stretch reflex out of the rep. No bounce, no stored momentum firing you out of the top of the motion. The muscle has to start every rep cold, from a dead stop, in its most stretched position. That is the spot that drives the most growth, and the pause forces you to actually earn it instead of riding elastic energy through the hardest part.

Own the stretch. Pause. Then pull the elbow into the pocket.

Save this for your next pull day.

Most people butcher cable ab crunches they hinge at the hips, pull with their arms, and never get true spinal flexion.

This setup fixes all of that.

By using the leg pad as a back brace and choosing this cable set-up, you lock your lower body in place so your spine can actually move. That gives you the freedom to go into full spinal extension → spinal flexion, which is exactly how you bias the upper abs.

Here’s why this version hits different:

The leg pad acts as back brace and being seated helps to stabilize your pelvis so the abs can do the work

Your upper spine can rounds properly, giving you a stronger contraction

You remove momentum and isolate what really matters: controlled flexion

It’s one of the easiest ways to feel TRUE upper-ab activation

If you’ve never tried this setup, you’re leaving definition and strength on the table.

Does this mean I am a Crossfitter now?

I really like this movement on the GHD for abs. It provides from movement of the spin and loads the abs in the stretched position.

First rep the first time doing the exercise is alittle nerve racking, but once you get into the movement is works really well.

If you do not have one of this machines you can do this using a hyperextension bench or also a swiss ball.

The program that worked at 25 does not work at 38.

Not because you got weaker.

Because your hormonal environment changed.

Testosterone is lower. Recovery capacity is reduced. Cortisol sensitivity is higher.

Training to failure repeatedly in that environment does not build muscle.

It destroys recovery and suppresses the hormones that drive adaptation.

The adjustments:

Longer rest between sets. Leave two reps in reserve on every working set. Prioritize movement quality over load progression. Match training intensity to your recovery capacity not your ego.

This is not training less hard.

This is training smarter inside a different biological reality.

If you are a professional man over 35 and your sleep is garbage, the problem is almost never the sleep itself.

It is what your nervous system is still doing at 11pm after a full day of performing at a high level.

Here is how I think about sleep for the men I work with.

Sleep onset. You lie down and your brain keeps running. Replaying the day. Planning tomorrow. That is cortisol still elevated when it should be declining. The fix starts hours before bed not when your head hits the pillow.

Sleep maintenance. You fall asleep fine but wake up at 2 or 3am and cannot get back down. That is almost always a blood sugar crash or a cortisol spike. Both are driven by how you are eating and how stressed your system is during the day.

Sleep quality. You log seven hours and wake up feeling like you slept four. That is a deep sleep architecture problem. Your body is not getting into the stages where testosterone is produced, muscle is repaired, and the brain consolidates memory.

All three of these have a biological driver.

And for professional men the driver is almost always the same.

A nervous system that never fully comes down from the demands of the day.

Better sleep does not start with supplements.

It starts with understanding what your cortisol is doing for the 16 hours before you try to sleep.

DM me SLEEP and I will tell you where I would start with your situation.

You wake up with a flat stomach every morning.

By noon you look three months pregnant.

By dinner you are unbuttoning your pants.

Nothing you ate explains it.

Here is what does.

Your stomach acid is too low to break down what you are eating.

And stress is the reason it dropped in the first place.

Here is how the cascade works.

When you are chronically stressed your body diverts resources away from digestion and toward survival.

Stomach acid production drops.

Food lands in your stomach and instead of being broken down efficiently it sits there and ferments.
Gas builds.

Bloating follows.

And the problem compounds with every meal you eat in a stressed or rushed state.

Low stomach acid also means the pH signal that triggers your pancreatic enzymes further down the digestive tract never fires properly.

So even the food that does move through is not being fully broken down or absorbed.

This is why you can eat clean all day and still feel like your gut is failing you.

The food is not the problem.

The environment you are digesting it in is.

Betaine HCL is one of the tools I use with clients to restore stomach acid to a functional level while we address the underlying cortisol load driving the suppression.

It is not a permanent fix on its own.

But paired with the stress work it is one of the fastest ways to restore normal digestive function and eliminate the daily bloating cycle.

Wake up flat.

Stay flat.

That is the goal.

DM me ABSORPTION and I will tell you how I assess this and where I would start.