Can being fit protect you from alcohol's damage? Should you double your creatine dose? Do women need to program training around their cycle? In this research review, Cody McBroom breaks down four new studies: what they found, where they fall short, and exactly how to apply them. No hype, no shortcuts. Just the data.

IN THIS EPISODE:

→ Alcohol vs. Fitness (The HUNT Study): 24,853 adults tracked for 16+ years. Changes in fitness predicted mortality more strongly than changes in drinking. The most dangerous pattern in the entire study wasn't heavy drinking. It was losing fitness. (But fitness is a buffer, not an eraser.)

→ High-Dose Creatine: Where the muscle saturation ceiling really is, when bigger lifters need 6–8g, and why 10–20g/day may matter for your brain during sleep deprivation, mental fatigue, and high-stress training blocks. Plus how to avoid the GI issues.

→ Menstrual Cycle & Strength Training: 28 trained women, 4 cycles, hormone-verified phases, and bar-speed data from real training sessions. Cycle phase barely moved performance. Motivation and pain did, and pain hit deadlifts and bench press in opposite directions.

→ Irisin & Fat Loss: A 50-trial meta-analysis on the "fat-browning" myokine. Resistance training posted the biggest increase, but here's why a blood marker doesn't beat energy balance, and why the irisin research carries a real measurement controversy.

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STUDIES REFERENCED:

- Munteanu et al. (2026). The Effect of Menstrual Cycle Phase, Symptoms, Motivation, and Readiness to Perform on Resistance Training Performance. Sports Medicine.

- Nauman et al. (2025). Running from Death: Can Fitness Outpace Alcohol's Harm? Sports Medicine.

- Hejazi et al. (2026). Effects of Different Training Modalities on Circulating Irisin Levels in Overweight and Obesity Adults. Sports Medicine.

- Hultman et al. (1996); Candow et al. (2023); McMorris et al. (2006); Gordji-Nejad et al. (2024) – creatine dosing & brain bioenergetics