Skribans Strength, Performance and Nutrition

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Skribans Strength, Performance and Nutrition

Bringing out the mixture of obsessive fitness lifestyle paired with scientific background in order f

Education: Currently studying MSc in Sport and Exercise Nutrition, Leeds Beckett University starting September 2016 – 2017. Ba(Hons) (Top-Up) Sports Science, Derby University 2015 – 2016. FdSc Sport and Exercise Science, Derby University 2013 – 2015. Certifications: KBT Strength and Conditioning Qualifications (Powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting and Kettlebell training);
Level 3 Diploma in Sports Massage Therapy;
Milos Sarcev's Hyperaemia training principles;
Level 1 ISAK Technician (anthropometric measurements);
Level 3 Personal Trainer, Group Class Training Certificate;
First Aid Certificate. Focus: Performance Nutrition, Lifestyle Assessments, Bodyweight Management, Body Transformations, Strength & Conditioning for Sports Events, Powerlifting, Bodybuilding/fitness/bikini contest prep. Personal Bio: An aspiring fitness addict that is currently working on his SENr (Sports and Exercise Nutrition register) accreditation in order to be internationally recognised performance nutritionist. Over last 10 years I have worked with every level, shape and size athletes - starting from someone who works daily by the desk and up to Olympic athletes. A highly experienced and self-motivated personal trainer with the ability to critique his own knowledge in order to provide the most current and relevant training methods to his clients. Possessing a hard work ethics and passion to fitness related lifestyle, actively involving in different sports related activities and continuous self-development through theory learning and practical applications. Years of work as a personal trainer and continuous sports related studies have helped me to establish high understanding of physical and psychological issues that are holding fitness enthusiasts from achieving their desired goals, and apply personal knowledge to overcome these barriers in order to achieve the optimal physical and psychological potential of my clients. I might be demanding when it comes to training, but that is what we are here for - to push you over and beyond your own limits. Feel free to approach me for any fitness and health related advice even if we do not work directly together, I will never refuse an advice.

15/03/2026

Heart disease is still the number one killer 🫀
But the conversation about why it happens is often far too narrow.

Most people only hear about cholesterol.
LDL. ApoB. Statins.
Those markers matter. A lot.

But the research is becoming very clear about something else most people ignore:
Added sugar - especially in sugary drinks - can independently increase cardiovascular risk.

One large meta-analysis covering 72 prospective studies and more than 1.3 million people looked at sugar-sweetened beverages and long-term health outcomes.

Researchers found that higher intake of sugary drinks was linked to:
• 17% higher risk of coronary heart disease
• 13% higher risk of cardiovascular death

Even more concerning, the risk increased with every additional daily serving.

Source:
DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1019534

Another study from the Jackson Heart Study looked specifically at drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Participants who drank these beverages frequently had dramatically higher coronary heart disease risk.

Those drinking HFCS soda or fruit drinks three or more times per day had about 2.7–3× higher risk of coronary heart disease.

Source:
PMID: 33292663

Why could this happen?

High intake of added sugar can:
• worsen insulin resistance
• raise triglycerides (blood fats linked to heart disease)
• increase inflammation
• overload the liver and disrupt metabolism

So no - this is not about demonizing carbohydrates.

It is about recognizing that daily sugary drinks are not harmless calories.

Heart disease usually builds slowly from multiple factors stacking together:
• poor blood lipids
• high added sugar intake
• low activity
• chronic stress
• processed food diets

The smarter conversation is not about cholesterol or sugar.

It is cholesterol AND sugar.
Ignoring either one is incomplete thinking.

Save this post for the next time someone says “heart disease is only about cholesterol.”
And send it to someone who still thinks a daily soda is no big deal.

14/03/2026

It’s the things you learn after you think you know it all that actually change your life.

The dangerous moment in any career, any sport, any field - is when a man believes he has figured it out.

That’s when progress stops.

The beginner is curious. The amateur is hungry. But the so-called “expert” often becomes defensive, rigid, and allergic to new ideas.

And the irony?

The people who truly master something never feel like they know everything.

After 20 years of training, coaching, competing, and watching people succeed or destroy their own potential, one pattern keeps repeating:
The biggest breakthroughs never come from the basics you already understand.

They come from the uncomfortable lessons you discover after your ego tells you there’s nothing left to learn.

That is where growth lives. That is where strength is built. That is where men separate themselves from the crowd.

So if you ever catch yourself thinking you’ve got it all figured out…

Good.

Now you’re finally ready to start learning what truly matters.

13/03/2026

For years, the fitness world repeated the same absurd sentence:
“Your body can only absorb 20 to 30 g of protein per meal.”

Anything above that?
Supposedly wasted.

The problem is that the human body does not operate like a broken protein meter that shuts off after 30 grams. Anyone with half a brain could understand that!

And yet they needed a controlled human study to test this idea directly.

After resistance training, researchers gave trained men either 25 g or 100 g of protein and followed what happened in the body for 12 hours.

The results were very clear.

The 100 g protein meal produced a larger and longer anabolic response than the 25 g meal.

Protein synthesis was ~14-20% higher, and amino acids from the large meal continued appearing in the bloodstream for hours:
• 26% by 4 hours
• 44% by 8 hours
• 53% by 12 hours

And more than 85% of the ingested protein was used for body protein synthesis.

In simple terms:
The body did not panic and throw the extra protein away.
It slowed digestion and used it over a longer time window.

Source: Trommelen J. et al.
The anabolic response to protein ingestion during recovery from exercise has no upper limit in magnitude and duration in vivo in humans
DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2023.101324

What does this mean in real life?

It means you do not need to structure your day like a professional bodybuilder eating every 3 hours.

If you eat 2 to 4 larger meals, practice intermittent fasting, or simply have a busy schedule, a bigger protein meal can still support recovery and muscle building.

The real priority is not chasing perfect meal timing.

The real priority is hitting enough protein across the entire day and supporting your training.

So no - a 60 g or 70 g protein meal is not a mistake.
And your steak is not being “wasted.”

Save this for the next time someone repeats the 30 g protein myth.

11/03/2026

Most people obsess over sleep supplements, magnesium stacks, and expensive sleep gadgets.

Meanwhile, they are sleeping on a pillow that has quietly been collecting dust mites, moisture, bacteria, and dead skin for years.

The environment you sleep in matters more than most people realize.

Your pillow is warm, slightly humid, and full of fabric fibers. That combination makes it a comfortable home for dust mites, one of the most common indoor allergens. For sensitive people, they can contribute to nighttime congestion, breathing irritation, and even asthma symptoms.

Researchers have actually tested simple bedding control routines.

One study followed 42 people with dust mite-sensitive asthma who used a 4-week bedding routine that included washing covers, boiling them, and exposing bedding to sunlight. After the routine, dust mite allergen levels dropped, and some asthma symptoms improved.
(PMID: 12728474)

Another study tested UV-C light on dust mites and their eggs and found the light could damage or kill them.
(PMID: 23569994)

Important detail most people miss:
UV-C used in labs is stronger than normal sunlight.

So leaving your pillow outside will not magically sterilize it. But sunlight still helps by reducing moisture and improving drying, which may lower allergen build-up in fabrics over time.

And that leads to the real lesson.

Most people think a pillow is clean because the pillowcase is clean.
That is lazy thinking.

The pillow itself keeps holding moisture, skin debris, and allergen build-up night after night. A few hours of sunlight, regular washing, proper drying, and replacing old pillows when needed make far more sense than chasing another sleep hack while ignoring what your face rests on for 7-8 hours every night.

Sometimes, better sleep does not start with another supplement.
It starts with a cleaner sleep environment.

Save this, try it, and send it to the one buying sleep supplements while ignoring their pillow.

09/03/2026

The internet loves a good testosterone hack.

A few years ago, a headline went viral:
“I put a giant red light on my balls to triple my testosterone.”

Ridiculous? Maybe.
But it raised a real question:

Is there any science behind red light and testicular health?

When you look at the research, the story is more interesting than the headline.

These studies were not testing healthy men trying to boost testosterone.
They were asking a different question:

Can red or near-infrared light help damaged testicular tissue recover and function better?

That matters because damaged te**es often show the same pattern:
• oxidative stress
• inflammation
• cellular damage
• poor energy production

When that happens, the cells that make testosterone and s***m do a worse job.

In one animal study, spinal cord injury damaged testicular function. After 810 nm light, researchers found higher testosterone, lower oxidative stress, and better antioxidant status.
PMID: 40330513 | DOI: 10.34172/jlms.2025.06

In another study, mice with chemically damaged te**es received 890 nm infrared light. Researchers found higher testosterone output, healthier tissue, and better s***m-producing structures.
PMID: 40351155 | DOI: 10.5653/cerm.2024.07430

A third study looked at testicular injury and found better s***m count, motility, viability, and morphology after light treatment.
PMID: 41789268 | DOI: 10.34172/jlms.2025.67

So yes - based on these studies, red light did help.

But here is where people ruin the conversation:

It helped in damaged animal te**es.
That is not the same as proving a healthy man can shine red light on his balls and suddenly triple testosterone.

What these papers really suggest is simpler:
When tissue health improves, hormone function may improve with it.

So this is less of a testosterone hack story
and more of a tissue recovery story.

Save this for the next guy who thinks every testosterone problem needs another supplement.
Send it to the one who thinks red light therapy is either total nonsense or instant magic.

08/03/2026

Human behaviour is extremely predictable.

Most people are trapped in one identity, and that identity controls everything - relationships, decisions, politics, standards, reactions, all of it.

It becomes so deeply engraved that it starts limiting performance in every area of life. Because one version of you will never be enough for every battle you face.

You need counsel. You need friction. You need people who are willing to tell you when you are wrong, weak, blind, or acting like an idiot.

That is where growth starts.

But the real power is this:
- You can build that counsel within yourself.
- You can create different identities for different tasks.
- The one who leads.
- The one who learns.
- The one who fights.
- The one who stays calm under pressure.
- The one who executes when emotions try to interfere.

That is control.

Because if something in your life is not working, the problem is often not the situation. The problem is that you are using the wrong part of yourself to solve it.

Sit down. Take a pen and paper.
Write down who you are now.
 Then write down who you need to become.
And start being that.

That is when your world starts to change.

If you want help building the systems, habits, and standards that create those identities - step inside The Solar Athlete.

07/03/2026

GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro are often presented as a breakthrough for weight loss.

And to be fair - they do work while you take them.

But the real question is rarely discussed:
What happens when people stop?

A large systematic review published in the BMJ looked at this exact question.

Researchers analyzed 37 studies including 9,341 participants who had used weight-management medications such as semaglutide or tirzepatide.

What they found is important.

After stopping the medication, weight regain started quickly.
On average, people regained about 0.4 kg per month, with projections suggesting a return to baseline weight within about 1.5 years.

But it wasn’t just body weight.

The improvements many people celebrate - blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol - also started drifting back toward baseline after the medication stopped.

In other words, for many people, the benefits were tightly tied to staying on the drug.

This is not a moral judgement about medication.
GLP-1 drugs can be powerful tools and may help many people.

But tools are not systems.

If appetite control, eating habits, food environment, activity levels, and daily structure stay the same, then removing the drug often means the body slides back toward the old pattern.

That’s the real conversation.

Not “do these drugs work?”
They clearly do.

The better question is:
What happens after the prescription ends?

Because weight loss is one challenge.
Maintaining it is completely different.

💾 Save this for the next “problem solved” conversation.
📲 Send it to someone who needs the full picture, not just the exciting part at the start.

Join our Solar Athlete group on the Skool platform to learn how to set up habits that deliver results, instead of drugging yourself into never-ending patterns.

Source:
Weight regain after cessation of medication for weight management: systematic review and meta-analysis - PMID: 41500720.

06/03/2026

Most "new" dads think their job is to pamper their kids.

Read more. Explain more. Correct more.

But one of the most powerful brain-building tools might look like wrestling on the living room floor.

A 2022 study on father-child rough-and-tumble play found that the frequency and quality of physical play with dad were linked to better working memory in children (PMID: 35883947).

Working memory is the brain’s scratchpad.

It allows a child to:
• follow multi-step instructions
• stay focused in class
• resist distractions
• regulate impulses

In simple terms, it is a core part of executive function. And executive function predicts academic performance, emotional control, and long-term cognitive outcomes.

The researchers filmed 30 father-child pairs during rough play and tested the children’s working memory.

Result?
More frequent rough play was associated with better working memory scores and fewer working memory problems. Higher-quality play showed stronger links as well.

This was not chaos. It was structured, rule-based physical play.
Excited body. Controlled brain.

That combination forces a child to practice stop-go control, read facial cues, negotiate intensity, and regulate emotion in real time. That is neurological training disguised as fun.

Important:
The study did not measure “20% brain growth.”
It did not test BDNF.
It shows an association, not proof of cause.

But here is the practical takeaway.

If you are a father, 10 to 15 minutes of controlled physical play per day is not “just play.”
It may be executive function training.

Less lecturing. More hands-on wrestling.

Save this. Send it to a dad who thinks development only happens at a desk, endlessly working on being "more empathetic" and "spiritual."

They might be stealing their offspring's ability to develop spatial awareness and critical thinking - skills that are dying in the modern world.

05/03/2026

Tough question.

If someone said:
“Juris, you have two options tonight.
Date the love of your life…
or train chest with you.”

I’d have to ask one thing first:
Does she understand what real chest day looks like?

Because most people think chest training is
3 sets of bench, a few selfies, pump the pecs, go home.

That’s not chest day.

Chest day with me is war.

Heavy pressing.
Slow negatives.
Paused reps.
One more set when your arms are shaking and your brain is negotiating surrender.

Your shirt sticks to your back.
Your triceps are screaming.
And somewhere around the last set you start questioning every life decision that brought you into that gym.

Romantic dinner sounds nice.

But a perfect set of heavy presses where the bar moves exactly how you planned it…
that feeling is impossible to beat!

So the real question isn’t:
“Love of your life or chest day?”

The real question is:
Can she handle being second place to a properly executed chest workout?

If not…
she probably wasn’t the love of your life anyway.

Work with someone who actually trains like this.
Not someone who just talks about it.

05/03/2026

Living near a phone tower? You MUST know this!

We talk about “non-ionizing” radiation, like that label ends the discussion.

It doesn’t.

A 2024 human study in Germany looked at people who had lived near mobile phone base stations for at least 5 years. Not in a lab. Not for a few hours. Real homes. Real bedrooms. Real long-term exposure.

They compared residents living 75 - 160 meters from a tower to those living 490 - 1,020 meters away. They measured RF-EMF levels inside bedrooms. Then they tested the blood.

Main finding:
The closer group had significantly more chromosomal abnormalities. This included dicentric chromosomes (chromosomes stuck together the wrong way), fragments (broken pieces), and more serious total structural damage.
Source: Gulati et al., Evaluation of oxidative stress and genetic instability among residents near mobile phone base stations in Germany (DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2024.116486).

What did not change?
No clear increase in specific gene patterns linked to certain blood cancers.
No clear rise in classic “double strand” DNA snap markers.
Oxidative stress was slightly higher, but not strongly significant.

So no - this is not a panic headline.
It does not prove the disease.
It does not guarantee harm.

But it also does not support the lazy argument that “non-thermal means non-biological.”

Chromosomal aberrations are structural DNA changes. In radiation biology, they are used as markers of exposure load over time. In this study, they were higher in the more exposed group - even after accounting for age, lifestyle, and medical X-rays.

Your body tracks inputs.
Training is input.
Nutrition is input.
The environment is input.

Biology adapts - until it doesn’t.

If we care about longevity, resilience, and recovery, we cannot ignore environmental signals just because they are invisible.

Save this for a calm, evidence-based discussion.
Share it with someone who still thinks “non-ionizing” means “nothing happens.”

03/03/2026

At 12 years old, we are handing kids the most addictive device ever created… and acting surprised when sleep, mood, and body weight start shifting.

A large study of 10,588 early adolescents looked at something very simple:

Does owning a smartphone at age 12 link to depression, obesity, or not getting enough sleep?

Here is what they found.

Compared to kids without a smartphone, 12-year-old owners had:
• 31% higher odds of depression
• 40% higher odds of obesity
• 62% higher odds of insufficient sleep

Younger age of first smartphone?
Also linked to higher odds of obesity and poor sleep!

And when kids who did not have a phone at 12 got one by 13, their odds of clinical-level mental health problems and poor sleep increased as well - even after accounting for earlier mental health.

This does not prove smartphones “cause” depression or obesity.

But it does show a consistent pattern: early, personal, unsupervised access is linked to worse outcomes.

Sleep is not optional.
Mood stability is not optional.
Healthy body composition in adolescence is not cosmetic - it sets trajectory.

We would never give a 12-year-old unlimited access to alcohol, gambling, or driving.

But we hand over a device engineered to capture attention, disrupt sleep, and feed comparison.

The real conversation is not “phones are evil.”

It is:
• At what age?
• With what limits?
• With what supervision?
• With what sleep protection?

If you are a parent, this is not about panic.
It is about structure.

No phone in the bedroom.
Hard sleep boundaries.
Time limits.
Parental control over settings. Not negotiation.

We cannot complain about rising anxiety, obesity, and sleep disorders in teenagers while ignoring the environment we normalize.

Data first. Emotion second.

If you care about adolescent mental health, sleep, obesity risk, and long-term brain development, this is a conversation worth having.

Save this for the next “it’s just a phone” argument.
Send it to the parent who thinks “my kid will self-regulate.”

02/03/2026

The quackery of 2026 is just next level.

Men letting weak men redefine strength.

Suddenly everyone is a “longevity coach” - preaching mobility, agility, injury prevention, “move better,” “protect your joints,” nervous-system this and that.

Here’s the dumb part:
Most of them aren’t strong.
Most of them aren’t mobile beyond a warm-up.
No track record of building physiques, strength, or men.
And zero proof they’ve improved anyone’s life expectancy.

But they talk. A lot.
Sometimes with crying videos about “strength through weakness” - like an advert for the latest tampon brand.

Truth is simple: training hard got uncomfortable.
Progress demands effort. Effort exposes weakness.
So instead of getting better, they changed the story and dragged standards down to fit their excuses.

Now it’s not about muscle.
Not about brutal strength.
Not about progressive overload.

It’s “move better.”
“Protect your joints.”
“Train for longevity.”
“Look after your mental health”
Translation: accept being weak.

Longevity of what? A body that never did anything?

Strong men move just fine.
A controlled 250 kg squat isn’t fragile.
20kg of muscle isn’t built with comfort.

And the mental side is the real giveaway:
A strong mind doesn’t look for pity.
It shows discipline when motivation is dead.
Emotional control under pressure.
Persistence when nobody’s watching.

Reality: muscle mass, strength, bone density, work capacity - they protect you as you age.
And so does emotional maturity. A resilient body without a resilient mind collapses fast.

Yes, mobility matters. Programming matters. Fatigue management matters.
But they SUPPORT hard training - they don’t replace it.

So ask yourself: who are you listening to?
The man who built strength for decades - or the one selling softness as “science”?

Wake the F up.

Build muscle. Build strength. Build resilience - body and mind.
Then add mobility and precision.

Don’t let softness become a virtue.
Strong men lead by example.

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