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The High Performance Journal - September 23rd, 2025

I've been coaching for 20+ years and have worked with thousands of clients in person and online.

I've learned a few things along the way. In this article, I hope to teach you a few "cheat codes" I've learned from my years of being in the trenches.

The way to approach this list is to pick a few that speak to you and take action on them.

Knowledge turns into wisdom when it's applied.

So, in today's newsletter, I want to share with you....

You ready? Let's go 🔥

Fitness Cheat Codes I Know At 45 I Wish I Knew At 25

1. Take 5 grams of creatine for the muscles. Take 10-15 grams of creatine for the brain. 5 grams of creatine a day has been shown to enhance strength, performance, and recovery. However, research is now indicating that the brain absorbs less, which necessitates higher doses of around 10 to 15 grams to boost brain creatine. This will help you improve cognitive performance, energy, and has also been shown to boost mood.

2. The 2 best types of cardio to live longer are: Walking and the Norwegian 4x4. Walking 7,000 steps a day can decrease your risk of all-cause mortality by 50%. Vigorous types of exercise, specifically ​the Norwegian 4x4​, have been shown to increase your VO₂ max while reducing the age of the heart by 20 years.

3. Your grip is a symbol of longevity. A strong grip is a symptom of muscle health, which is a predictor of mortality, frailty, and chronic disease. A great way to test your grip strength is the passive bar hang:

Passive bar hangs

This tests upper body strength & grip strength, which is an indicator of longevity.

You just hang from a bar for as long as you can.

60 seconds is advanced. 40 seconds is a pass. 30 seconds or less needs work. pic.twitter.com/oAfCJhhsAq

— Dan Go (@FitFounder) May 6, 2023

4. Keep your warm-ups short and dynamic. Before a workout, do a short 6-minute routine to prep your body for the workout ahead. This would include activities to get your heart rate up, mobility exercises to grease your joints, and activation exercises for the muscles that you would use inside of the workout. Here's an ​article that looks like​.

5. You can become stronger by watching something "arousing" before a lift. This can be in the form of music, motivational videos, self-talk, or stimuli that increase excitement or aggression. Studies show "psyching up" the nervous system pre-lift can result in a 2-8% improvement.

6. Get your blood work checked every 6 months. It will show you what nutrients you're missing, which will optimize your body for better performance. I did an article on all the things to test for, which you can check out ​over here​.

7. The best way to hydrate is to use a pinch of sea salt or electrolyte powder with your water. This replenishes essential minerals lost through sweat, enhances hydration, and also supports nerve and muscle function, helping you maintain proper fluid balance.

8. Visualize your lifts before performing them. This process primes the brain's motor pathways, boosts self-confidence, sharpens focus, and increases muscle activation, ultimately leading to greater strength and improved lifting performance.

9. Work out in gyms where you're the least fit person. This is like sitting in a room surrounded by billionaires.

10. If you deal with low back issues, do these exercises religiously:

11. One of the best science-based walking workouts on the planet is called Japanese Interval Walking Training. You go at 3 minutes of a steady pace for 3 minutes, followed by a brisk pace, and repeat this for 30 minutes. It has been shown to boost your cardiovascular health, like strength VO2 max, while improving blood pressure, burning more calories, and enhancing your mood and metabolism. I did a video on it, you can check it out here: 

12. Get an under-the-desk treadmill and turn every meeting into a walking meeting. This adds an extra 5-10k steps a day without thinking about it. In fact, while doing this script, I was using an app called Wispr Flow (which is a talk-to-text app).

14. Suddenly feeling hungry and not sure if you should eat? Use the water test. Drink 500ml of water and stay busy for 20 minutes. If you're still hungry, eat. If you forgot about it, you were either bored or dehydrated.

15. Make flossing a mandatory part of your days and nights. Flossing reduces oral bacteria and gum inflammation, which prevents bacteria from entering your bloodstream, lowering your chronic inflammation, which is linked to heart disease and stroke risk. Several studies show that regular flossing is associated with A reduced risk of all-cause mortality and lower levels of inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein.

16. Keep a ball underneath your desk so you can give yourself foot massages while you're working. This can relieve pain, boost circulation, reduce tension, improve mobility, and prevent plantar fasciitis while promoting relaxation and recovery.

17. Practice walking backwards. Reverse walking can improve knee health, body awareness, and brain function—no need to add weight to it like the video below. Find an open field and start practicing.

1. Reverse walking

We spend most of our time going forwards but not enough walking back.

Reverse walking can improve mobility in your knees, hips & ankles while preventing pain & improving shock absorption compared to regular walking.

You can do this with or without weights. pic.twitter.com/BQdK9JpZRN

— Dan Go (@FitFounder) May 13, 2023

18. Do an audit of your life and see what you can habit stack. This is the art of adding new habits on top of strong ones. I use a water flosser and my toothbrush while I'm in the shower. This makes it easier for me to do my oral hygiene habits. I walk while I have meetings. I stroll while watching Netflix, which is a great way to stay entertained while getting my steps in. Finding these little ways that you can stack habits on top of each other can make the integration of habits much easier.

19. Check your vitamin D levels. You can do a nutrient panel with your doc to see this. I see vitamin D deficiency in around 75% of my clients. And this sucks because it is the most anabolic, mood-boosting, fat-burning nutrient on the planet. The best way to get vitamin D is through the sun, but if you can't, you want to use a supplement that has D3 + K2 because this is going to enhance your calcium absorption and ensure the calcium is directed to your bones rather than your arteries.

20. Use this exercise to increase lower-body power, opening up your ankle mobility:

I do this exercise before every leg day because strength starts from the bottom first.

Due to sitting & comfy shoes one of the biggest things that holds you back is tight ankles.

Do this drill for 8-10 reps before a lower body workout to unlock a new level of performance. pic.twitter.com/fiufLwt7n3

— Dan Go (@FitFounder) April 27, 2022

21. Become a nasal breather. Your nose should be primary, your mouth secondary. Nasal breathing humidifies air, boosts oxygen and nitric oxide, and filters dust and allergens. Mouth breathing harms facial structure, increases dental issues, disrupts sleep, lowers oxygen absorption, and impairs cognition. To train, tape your mouth while doing desk work to force nasal breathing.

22. If you live in a northern climate like I do, get a light therapy lamp for the winter. Preferably one that is 10,000 lux. A light therapy lamp mimics sunlight, which will help reset your circadian rhythms, boost serotonin, and improve your mood in those cold, dark winter months.

23. Limit/avoid bluelight exposure at night. Exposure to bright blue light at night can impact their quality of sleep. Nighttime exposure to light while sleeping has been shown to increase the risk of diabetes by 50%. Light should be absorbed during the day, but at night, you want to dim your lights down and sleep in a completely blacked-out room.

24. Create a health dashboard. This contains your sleep scores, HRV, weight, BMI, body fat %, bloodwork, and any other metric that matters to you. One of the best ways to stay on top of your health is to measure what you manage, and a health dashboard is going to give you the KPIs (key performance indicators) to show you if you're on the right track or slipping off.

25. Develop a positive relationship with your body. I know, I know. Easier said than done, eh? But imagine how things would change if you weren't constantly talking down to your body and you had a genuine appreciation for what it can do. Sure, you could get in shape by hating your body, but you will never keep yourself in shape unless you start to love it.

The Final Word

You have learned in 4 minutes what has taken me 20+ years to figure out.

Your job is, as Bruce Lee would say,

"to absorb what is useful and to reject what is useless."

Also, avoid the "eyes bigger than the stomach" approach, where people try to do everything but end up accomplishing nothing.

Choose at most 1 to 2 things to focus on and try out.

The most important part of all this is consistency - that is where you get the best results.

Onward and upward. 🚀

- Dan

When you're ready, here are 2 ways I can help:

1. The Lean Body 90 System: When you’re ready to get in great shape, Lean Body 90 is the obvious choice. You can get in great shape and reach your fitness goals in just 90 minutes a week. Lose weight and build muscle even without hours in the gym or highly restrictive diets. Join 1000+ students here.

2. Are you an entrepreneur who wants to get lean, boost energy, and get in your best shape? Apply for private one-on-one coaching here.

References

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2. Dechent P, et al. Increase of total creatine in human brain after oral supplementation of creatine-monohydrate. Am J Physiol. 1999. [PMID: 10516265]
3. Paluch AE, et al. Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis. JAMA Netw Open. 2021. [PMID: 34533575]
4. Wisloff U, et al. Superior cardiovascular effect of aerobic interval training versus moderate continuous training in heart failure patients. Circulation. 2007. [PMID: 17785621]
5. Leong DP, et al. Prognostic value of grip strength: Prospective cohort study of 139,691 participants in 17 countries. Lancet. 2015. [PMID: 25982160]
6. Behm DG, Chaouachi A. A review of the acute effects of static and dynamic stretching on performance. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2011. [PMID: 21229234]
7. Tod D, et al. Effects of self-talk on strength performance. J Sport Behav. 2002. [PMID: 14677648]
8. Sawka MN, et al. Human water and electrolyte balance. In: Comprehensive Physiology. 2011. [PMID: 23733692]
9. Slimani M, et al. Effects of mental imagery on strength performance: A meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2016. [PMID: 27107460]
10. McGill SM. Low back stability: from formal description to issues for performance and rehabilitation. Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2001. [PMID: 11210446]
11. Nemoto K, et al. Effects of high-intensity interval walking on physical fitness and blood pressure in middle-aged and older people. Mayo Clin Proc. 2007. [PMID: 17418075]
12. Dietrich T, et al. Periodontal disease and incident diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2008. [PMID: 18332163]
13. Wang F, et al. Backward walking training improves balance in stroke patients: a RCT. Clin Rehabil. 2011. [PMID: 21933881]
14. Kuwabara A, et al. The association between vitamin K2 and arterial calcification. Nutrients. 2020. [PMID: 31936094]
15. Lundberg JO, et al. Nasally derived nitric oxide and respiratory tract lining fluid. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 1997. [PMID: 9367455]
16. Lam RW, et al. Light therapy for seasonal affective disorder: a systematic review. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006. [PMID: 16389266]
17. Cheung IN, Zee PC. Circadian misalignment, sleep disruption, and cardiometabolic risk. Curr Opin Endocrinol Diabetes Obes. 2019. [PMID: 30817430]

Disclaimer: This email is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical advice or professional services. The information provided should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, and those seeking personal medical advice should consult with a licensed physician.