If you use one of our products in practice, I’d love to hear how.

It could be:

• Why you recommend a particular product

• Who you commonly recommend it to

• How you incorporate it into your approach

• An area of health, nutrition or performance you’re particularly passionate about

(Here’s a list of our products: Propel Health Supplements.)

Don’t Know Where To Start?

No stress.

Send me a few notes, answer some questions, or jump on a quick call.

I can turn your ideas into an article and send it back to you for approval before anything is published.

What Do You Get?

1) Exposure for you and your business

I’ll feature you on the Propel Health website, including information about your business and a link to your website (good for SEO).

2) Social media exposure

I’ll share the article through Propel’s social channels.

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

3) Access to our customer audience

I may also send selected articles to our customer database (more than 10,000 people and growing).

No cost.

No obligation.

Interested?

Just reply to this email with the product or topic you’d like to talk about.

Chat soon,

Grant

Imagine an patient walks into a physio or orthopaedic surgeon with:

• a tendon injury

• a ligament injury

• a meniscus injury

• a stress fracture

• persistent joint pain

They receive the usual treatment.

Diagnosis.

Load management.

Rehab.

Progressive loading.

Maybe medication, injections or surgery.

None of us will argue this so far.

But what about nutrition?

Specifically: what about collagen?

When will these conversations become part of standard musculoskeletal rehabilitation?

Collagen

A 2021 systematic review examined 15 randomised controlled trials investigating collagen supplementation alongside exercise.

After initially screening 856 papers, the researchers concluded:

“COL is most beneficial in improving joint functionality and reducing joint pain.”

They also reported increases in collagen synthesis rates with 15 g/day, alongside some evidence for improvements in body composition, strength and recovery.

Let’s Look At Athletes

A 2017 clinical trial recruited 139 athletic participants experiencing activity-related knee pain.

For 12 weeks they received either:

5 g/day of specific collagen peptides

or

Placebo.

Activity-related knee pain improved significantly more with collagen than placebo according to both the athletes’ ratings and the physicians’ assessments.

The collagen group also required significantly fewer additional therapeutic interventions.

And Now The Meniscus

Then we have a 2025 randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving people with meniscopathy.

After eight weeks, the collagen-supplemented group showed significant improvements in measures including:

• pain,

• quality of life and

• kinesiophobia, with

• improvements also reported in some functional outcomes.

Ok, it was only 32 participants, so I’m not suggesting this study settles the question (few studies do).

(References here.)

So Where Is The Line?

I’m NOT saying a physio or orthopaedic surgeon who doesn’t recommend collagen or creatine is currently committing professional negligence…. Yet.

That’s a legal question involving standards of care, scope of practice, individual circumstances and much more.

But at what point does ignoring an inexpensive, accessible and increasingly researched intervention become difficult to justify?

I reckon there used to be an defence:

“There isn’t enough evidence.”

But now that’s changing to:

“I haven’t kept up with the evidence.”

Take Home Message

Today we have systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials investigating collagen synthesis, joint pain and joint function.

Let’s change from:

“Is there enough evidence for me to recommend this?”

To:

“Is there enough evidence that I should at least be discussing it?”

Because an injured patient doesn’t care whether the intervention came from the physio textbook, the nutrition textbook or the strength & conditioning textbook.

They just want to get better.

And our job should be to give them the best possible environment in which to do that.

As always, happy to discuss further.

Chat soon,

Grant

PS I’ve credited your account with $10 towards our Collagen Protein Powder. Enter code - collagen10 - at check out to help your joints.

(Reference, and a deal on creatine for you, are at the end of this.)

The Study

Here’s the TDLR:

• 12 Weeks

• 64 Participants (aged 45 to 65, avg age 54)

• 4 Groups:

1. No exercise + placebo.

2. No exercise + 10 g/day creatine.

3. Exercise/diet + placebo.

4. Exercise/diet + 10 g/day creatine

Note: 10g, not 3 or 5g, per day.

(I’ve written more about creatine for health aging here.)

Obv, you already know the Exercise/diet + 10 g/day creatine group got the best results in fat loss, muscle gain, strength improvements, etc.

That’s not the interesting part.

Interesting part 1:

The No exercise + 10 g/day creatine group gained over 1 kg of fat-free mass over the 12 weeks.

Interesting part 2:

And the authors report improvements in strength (bench press and leg press 1RMs) with no structured training program.

Interesting part 3:

There were cognitive improvements in both Creatine groups.

(Not so interesting if you’ve been following creatine research for the past 25 years.)

So who should be taking Creatine?

• Your parents

• Shift workers

• Travelling athletes

• Perimenopausal women

• Anyone who is stressed

• Etc.

Disclaimer

Even though it’s not a popular position, I still recommend cycling creatine.

My heuristic is that anything that is consumed in unnatural amounts could have unknown negatives.

But you’re an adult and can make your own mind up.

Chat soon,

Grant

Creatine Special all Weekend - Buy 2, get a third Creatine for free. Use - creatine3for2 - at check out. Click here - Best Creatine in Australia.

Reference

Chun J, et al. (2026). Effects of creatine supplementation with and without exercise and diet intervention on body composition, cognitive function, and markers of health in middle-aged and older adults. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

We were inspired by a company (wish I could remember the name) that had a 3-ingredient whey protein product.

It resonated with our clean-eating (yes, I know the term isn’t well defined) mindset.

And with some of my advisory/consulting roles in the supplement/nutrition space, I knew how tough this would be.

For a quick peek behind the supplement curtain, here are some truths:

1. Whey is EXPENSIVE - You can see why so many companies have surreptitiously decreased them protein content of their products (one company we used to sell in our gym dropped their protein content from 84% to 76% in about a year!).

2. Gen Pop wants a milkshake - Most people don’t understand that prioritising flavour, sweetness and mouthfeel means compromising on protein content.

3. People use price incorrectly - It’s not how much the product costs… It’s how much the protein costs.

So if we wanted to maximise profits, we’d focus on a mass-produced, mass-marketed whey protein shake with minimal protein and maximal flavour.

We went the opposite direction.

These were our parameters:

• Only 3 ingredients (the more you add, the more you drift away from clean)

• Over 80% protein (it’s easy to find carbs at school, sports grounds, on the road, etc.)

• Australian & grass-fed

R&D finished last week and production starts Monday!

Now as the heading suggests, this is a soft launch.

We’re making a small batch (less than 400kg) and I am looking for Coaches (or Mums) who want to trial it.

(NOTE: This batch won’t be HASTA certified!)

How it works:

1. Reply to this email to enter.

2. First 50 applicants (either coaches or parents) will be accepted.

3. Once set up, I’ll discount 50% off the RRP for your first order.

4. Once you’ve tried it, you’re invited to provide feedback.

If that sounds good to you, reply now.

Either way, make it a great day!

Chat soon,

Grant

PS We aimed at 80% protein… and achieved 85% : )

If you had to plot risk tolerance on a bell-curve, Tim would be on the extreme left.

And Randy would be on the extreme right.

Their nicknames were Timid Tim and Reckless Randy.

You can picture what each would do in every contest.

For example, instead of following up a great shot to the net, Tim would stay on the baseline.

With an open goal in front of him, Tim would still pass to a teammate.

Randy, on the other hand, would go for a tweener when a lob would suffice.

And when the situation calls for a simple pass, he’d try something extravagant.

You’ve tried every coaching tactic possible to change their behaviours - constraints-based feedback, punishments, drills, rewards, games, sessions on the couch…

Frustrated with the two of them, you stumble across this revolutionary 2011 study (linked below).

And you book an appointment with your local Gastroenterologist.

Having read the same study, the Gastro knows exactly what to do.

READ MORE…

He swaps their gut microbiota.

Tim receives Randy’s. Randy receives Tim’s.

Within a few days you notice a difference: Tim takes some calculated risks… And Randy isn’t as reckless.

Simply, both athletes have regressed towards the mean on the risk tolerance bell-curve.

You haven’t changed their DNA (nature). And you haven’t changed your coaching (nurture).

All that was change was their gut microbiota.

There’s a study showing that swapping gut bacteria changes a person’s behaviour?

No.

Not people, mice.

But the researchers didn’t simply compare one group of mice with another.

They used two different experimental models and both pointed to the same conclusion.

First, they altered the gut microbiota of healthy mice and observed changes in exploratory behaviour and brain chemistry.

Then they transferred gut microbiota from one strain of germ-free mice into another strain with a different behavioural profile.

The result?

The recipient mice began behaving more like the donor mice.

We both know no study is perfect.

And of course we should be careful about extrapolating mouse data to humans.

But this is one of the first studies that made researchers stop and think:

Could the bacteria living in our gut influence the way we think and behave?

So what do we do with a study like this?

Let’s not start swapping athletes’ gut microbiota.

But we also don’t dismiss it because it was performed in mice.

Instead, we let it challenge the way we think.

We’ve gone from Nature v Nurture… to Nature & Nurture… Perhaps it’s time to progress to:

Nature & Nurture & Microbiome

(or Nature & Nurture & Nutrition?)

Take Home Message

Back in my exercise physiology classes in the 90s, the gut was considered little more than a digestive tube.

Today, we know it communicates with the immune system, the endocrine system and the brain.

We’ve moved from:

“Does the gut influence the brain?”

To:

“What extent?”

Am I suggesting we send Timid Tim and Reckless Randy to a Gastroenterologist?

Probably not (well, not yet!).

But it is time we pay more attention to the ecosystem living inside our athletes.

Twenty years ago, we coached Nature and Nurture.

The next frontier might be the Microbiome.

Chat soon,

Grant

PPS To read more about the study reference about click here: Gut Health Axis.

PPS Improve your own microbiome by feeding your Bifidobacterium and Faecalibacterium.

Use discount code: guthealth15 for 15% off all our Gut Health Supplements.

As a small celebration of Hannah Casey’s Commonwealth Games gold, I’m giving you $30 off every order over $100

Yup, including our batch tested supplements!

Hannah Casey: Gold medalist in the pool. Champion person everywhere.

Sponsorship Time

Propel Health Australia is now at a time where I’ve been looking at (small) sponsorships and partnerships.

We’re working with the Australia Universities Rugby League team (coached by Ben Cross), GPS Rugby club, Teya Rufus and a few other select teams and athletes who I have a relationship with.

If you have someone who fits both criteria:

1. A champion person

2. Could benefit from our products

flick me a reply and let’s chat.

Collab Too?

I didn’t know what a collab was until a couple of years ago.

Simply, we have a percentage of our RRP to play with.

You decide on the percentage splits (e.g. x discount for your athletes/followers/clients and y referral fee paid to you).

Every purchase made through your link/code adds to your income stream.

In some cases the collab is with a gym or practice, in other cases it’s a specific person.

If you feel we align, reply to this.

Chat soon,

Grant

PPS Here is the code for your $30 voucher - casey30

My philosophy in the private sector was ‘let’s burn it off’ (don’t judge!) and in my employed/contract work, I had a dietitian looking after nutrition.

Around 2005, things changed.

There was a disconnect between what I learned at university and what I was seeing around me - and I wasn’t convinced that the 70% carbs/food pyramid paradigm was the way forward.

Later that year, at the Australian Weightlifting Federation Level 3 course, in a discussion about nutrition, a very experienced coach implied what I learned at university was rubbish and told me in a firm and friendly way “go do my own research.”

Protein Leverage Hypothesis

Not long after, I was introduced to the Protein Leverage Hypothesis - which suggests your body keeps eating (calories) until it gets enough protein.

My belief is any goal or desire-to-change that relies mainly on will power is going to fail.

And if by increasing high quality protein in my clients/athletes diet meant we reduced their reliance on will power to achieve their goals, I was all in!

So for years, this underpinned my nutritional guidance.

An Addition

Then I came across this 12-week clinical trial, where the researchers divided 125 adults into 4 groups:

1. Control

2. Inulin (a fibre) only

3. Protein only

4. Inulin & Protein

They found:

1. the Protein group reduced body fat, and

2. the Inulin only, Protein only and Inulin & Protein groups all reduced hunger.

Again, Protein for the fat-loss win.

And when I read “reduced hunger” I translate it to “less reliance on will power” - another win!

But There’s More

There was a second part to the above study that I only started appreciating a few years ago.

The authors noted that only the Inulin groups improved the gut microbiome (with increased Bifidobacterium).

So this is my current paradigm:

1. Use the Protein Leverage Hypothesis to help reduce calories and hunger (and by extension body fat).

2. Use inulin to help reduce hunger and improve gut health.

(I wrote an FAQ on Inulin for Weight Loss you can read.)

Keen to hear your thoughts. Comment below.

Chat soon,

Grant

PS As always, I am all for you trying something before you recommend it to your athletes/clients so this weekend is 20% off our Inulin from our Gut Health Supplements Australia range when you enter the code: inulin20

He didn’t start with niceties, there was barely a greeting

He just needed the info.

And quick.

This was a phone call I received on Tuesday.

The learning curve these past three years has been steep.

And my stress levels have been high.

Subscribe now

There are days spent navigating TGA regulations, procuring ingredients from companies, fixing inventory issues and dealing with delays that are completely out of my control.

And don’t get me started on the legal stuff.

But a phone call like this reminded me exactly why we started.

You probably have a similar story.

There might be that one time a parent had tears in their eyes while they thanked you for the work you did with their kid.

Or when you caught up with an athlete you used to train years ago, and they remember explicit details which showed you cared.

Of that text message from the athlete, away from the limelight, who thanks you for their success.

You can’t put these anecdotes on your resume… And no one will invite you onto their podcast to discuss them, but they are some of your most treasured memories.

This was the case with the phone call.

He explained that his local health food store had sold out of one of our products.

His health practitioner had recommended it to help manage his psoriasis (a skin condition).

Now he was almost out.

“Where can I get more?”

As soon as we received his order, we packed it and I personally dropped it off at the post office so it could make the next run.

The next time he called he was way more relaxed. And he was o grateful.

Our product had changed his life.

It’s highly unlikely we will ever meet, but I can’t tell you how good it felt to hear that his life genuinely improved because our product exists.

It makes it all worthwhile : )

(For those asking, the product was Gut Health Plus.)

And as you can imagine, I loved the fact that another health practitioner didn’t just treat his symptoms but dug deeper to find the cause.

Lastly, the phone call was a reminder…

We’re not in the coaching business or the fitness business or the athletic development business or the supplement business.

We’re in the business of helping people.

Sometimes I need to remind myself this.

Chat soon,

Grant

I’d recently been appointed Head of Strength & Conditioning at Brisbane Boys’ College, an elite school with a genuine desire to improve sporting performance.

My five years at university had ingrained in me the importance of peer-reviewed research.

My mindset was immature: no peer-reviewed study = no evidence.

Meanwhile, my six office colleagues, all experienced PE teachers, seemed to apply tried and tested principles of coaching, skill acquisition, speed training, etc. without reading the studies.

They just seemed to know.

Looking back, I realised they understood something I didn’t.

Not every worthwhile adaptation is immediately visible.

Sometimes the body is changing long before the Coach can measure it.

That lesson came back to me when I read a recent collagen study.

Collagen

Up until fairly recently, most of the academics I spoke to diminished the value of supplementing with collagen.

It’s not a complete protein. Studies show it doesn’t work. Etc.

Yet, when I chatted to experienced, in-the-trenches coaches, they saw value in collagen supplementation.

Why the disconnect?

My suspicion is the early studies were too short (e.g. days or weeks), with low dosages (e.g. 5g) while the coaches were recommending 10g, 15g and 20g doses for months.

In other words, physiological changes may have been happening long before anyone could measure or observe them.

Which is why I this study jumped out at me.

The Research

A recently published pilot study examined collagen peptide supplementation in female distance runners.

In just four weeks, the runners supplemented with 20g of collagen peptides per day.

Compared to placebo, the collagen group:

• increased a marker of bone formation

• reduced the inflammatory marker IL-6

• showed changes suggesting a more favourable environment for bone remodelling.

(Bear in mind, this was a small pilot study, and they concluded larger, longer-term studies are needed before firm conclusions can be made.)

Subscribe now

Take Home Message

One thing that struck me was that the biomarkers changed long before anyone would notice real-world benefits (e.g. fewer stress fractures).

Which means it’s easy to dismiss an intervention after four or six weeks simply because we can’t yet see the adaptation that’s occurring underneath.

This made me wonder if we should be recommending collagen protein powder to

• Teenage athletes during Peak Height Velocity.

• Basketballers repeatedly loading their patellar tendons.

• Tennis players transitioning from clay to hard.

• Women in general.

• Masters athletes with slower connective tissue turnover.

• Military personnel carrying heavy loads.

• HYROX participants (not calling them athletes : ) repeatedly loading tendons.

• Footy players absorbing collision after collision.

I don’t know whether future studies will validate collagen in every one of those populations.

What I do know is this:

We don’t have the luxury of measuring bone turnover markers or inflammatory biomarkers every week.

Sometimes we need to trust that the body is adapting long before the outcome becomes obvious.

Maybe that’s the bigger lesson from this paper?

Not every worthwhile adaptation is immediately visible.

And if a safe, relatively inexpensive intervention has a plausible mechanism, emerging evidence and very little downside, I’m comfortable exploring it with the right athletes while the science continues to evolve.

Chat soon,

Grant

PS This weekend only I am offering a Buy 2, Get 3 deal on our single Hydrolysed Collagen Powder. Order through this link.

And if you’re honest with yourself, you might find yourself a little bit embarrassed too.

During the early years of my career I spent plenty of hours reading sports science journals, translated Soviet training manuals, biomechanics textbooks and high performance literature.

(I’ve even read Supertraining cover to cover… Though it took two attempts : )

The embarrassment doesn’t come from *professional development* but rather the sources (or channels) or professional development.

Remember when I wrote in last weeks post:

Most Coaches are more interested in Professional Development for their Dream job than they are for their Current job.

That was 100% me.

Studying those texts and attending lectures and conferences, learning about the training of the 0.000001% of the population.

Then, as my coaching matured, I crystallised the following mantra:

My athletes are people first.

This hit home when I read the study below.

The Research…

Published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, a recent survey of almost 89,000 people found that nearly 1 in 7 experienced abdominal bloating in the previous week.

Can you see the disconnect?

I was studying the training methods of the infinitely small percentage of the population yet there was possibly a 14% chance the person in front of me was suffering from abdominal bloating.

And that’s just ‘bloating’… What about other gut issues?

Now, before you get cranky, there are some caveats.

Yes, the ‘1 in 7’ stat is from an unhealthy (general) population.

And, yes, there is a chance the people we train are more healthy than Gen Pop and possibly less likely to have bloating issues.

But the point remains: gut issues are common!

Time to reflect:

In any of the wellness/workload data you collect, is there anything about gut health?

But There’s More…

That study had other findings too:

1. There’s a 60% chance people who suffer from bloating are not asking anyone for help (not even their doctors).

2. And 30% chance they’re uncomfortable telling you about their issues.

What does this mean for us?

If we want to help the person in front of us, we’re going to have to draw the information from them in a way that is non-confronting and comfortable for them (and us).

And, trust me, it’s worth doing.

An athlete can turn up and train.

But they’re training at a sub-optimal level.

Their nutrients are not being properly absorbed.

Their recovery is hindered.

Their concentration waivers.

Their sleep is disrupted.

The Coaching Journey…

The older I get, the less interested I become in finding another 1% performance hack.

I’m more interested in making sure I haven’t missed something obvious.

Looking back, I probably spent too much time studying the world’s best athletes and not enough time understanding the everyday challenges of the athlete standing in front of me.

Our athletes are people first.

And people get bloated.

People have IBS.

People get constipated.

People feel uncomfortable talking about it.

Before you spend another hour tweaking a program, ask yourself:

Do I actually know how my athlete’s gut is functioning?

Because if you don’t know that, there’s a reasonable chance you’re trying to optimise performance while overlooking one of the biggest barriers to it.

If the answer is “it’s not great”, start with the fundamentals.

Improve food quality.

Identify obvious triggers.

Maybe their biggest gains aren’t going to come from a better program.

Maybe we just need to ask better questions.

Chat soon,

Grant

PS For those interested, our Gut Health Relief is often prescribed as a supplement for bloating.

It was downloaded from Twitter in 2016 and contains over 100 tweets hash tagged ‘Heuristic’.

I am sharing the first 26 here.

Have a read and let me know if they have stood the test of time ?

(If you don’t understand the term, please do NOT comment.)

1) Find a dietician that has been ostracised, publicly shamed or de-registered.

Follow their advice.

2) If you can train in the gym for longer than 45 mins then you’re not training hard enough.

3) 98% of the time ‘High Performance’ is a signal advertising high expense/low value.

4) An increase in Data leads to an increase in Intervention.

Plan accordingly.

5) Athletes may attach themselves to Coaches.

Gurus attach themselves to Athletes.

6) Big budgets kill innovation.

7) Coaches who understand Speed & Agility do not use:

- ‘Speed Ladders’.
- ‘Agility Poles’.
- the term ‘Fast Feet’.

8) Drug tests typically catch lower profile Athletes, from lower profile Sports, from lower socio-economic countries.

9) For health, never eat anything marketed to children.

10) Gymnastics Programs ‘til the age of 8 improve kid’s Resiliency.
Gymnastics Programs from the age of 8 increase kid’s Fragility.

11) High Performance Environments tend to value, in order:

1) Coach
2) Space
3) Equipment

Low Performance Environments tend to value, in order:

1) Equipment

12) If everyone around you is agreeing with you it’s not because you’re right... it’s because you’re in an Echo Chamber.

13) If it has the word ‘science’ after it, it isn’t one.

- nutrition

- political

- climate

- exercise

- sport

14) If someone is working with under 18s and they call their program High Performance, it’s for their own ego.

15) If the dominant voice heard at training is always the Coach’s, they’re doing it wrong.

16) If their Playing Experience is on their application for a Coaching job, they need more Coaching Experience.

17) If you employ 1st Year Coaches, you’re not a High Performance Program.

You’re a Developmental Program.

18) If you value every interaction with every Athlete, they’ll value every rep of every set.

19) If you want to be a good Sports Scientist invest in Qualifications.

If you want to be a good Coach invest in Experience.

20) If you want to be an Olympian don’t eat anything from a company that sponsors the Olympics.

21a) In an Under-Performing Organisation, High Performance people don’t last.

21b) In an Under-Performing organisation, the Politically-minded survive, not the High Performance.

22) It’s the least experienced who are the most certain.

23) Most Coaches are more interested in Professional Development for their Dream job than they are for their Current job.

24) Never judge a Physical Prep Program on what the Athletes say in the press about the Preseason.

25) Less than 1% of Coaches should be focusing on ‘One Percenters’.

26) Scientists are more interested in what’s right.

Coaches are more interested in what works.

Ok, so which ones have lasted? : )

Chat soon,

Grant

PS All weekend I’m giving a FREE creatine (non-batch tested) when you order value is over $100. At checkout, use: propelcreatine

Propel Health Australia

Most people wait until something goes wrong (e.g brain fog, poor concentration, etc.) before asking:

“What should I do for my brain?”

As a coach, this approach never sits well with me.

The best coaches don’t wait for a problem to occur.

They build resilience before it is needed.

The Paper

The paper explored how energy metabolism and oxidative stress change throughout the lifespan.

One interesting finding was that midlife appears to be a critical turning point rather than a slow, linear decline.

In other words, the brain seems to absorb wear and tear for decades before many people notice the consequences.

Not surprising.

After all, the brain is one of the most metabolically active organs in the body.

It represents only around 2% of our bodyweight but consumes roughly 20% of our oxygen and about 25% of our glucose.

Massive workload.

So the next question is:

If we want to support our brains before problems appear, where would we start?

Looking at the research, I’d suggest this:

1. Energy.

2. Structure.

3. Resilience.

1. Energy

Our brains are extraordinarily energy hungry.

This is one reason our appreciation for creatine has changed dramatically over the past decade: our brains need energy.

During periods of:

• poor sleep

• high cognitive demand

• stress

• travel

• exams

• competition

it makes more sense to support brain energy systems.

(As an aside, the last few years I’ve viewed creatine as a brain supplement that happens to help muscles.)

2. Structure

A second concept that often gets overlooked:

The brain is not just electrical.

It’s physical.

It is built from cells (remember high school biology?).

Membranes. Structural components. Phospholipids.

One reason I’ve look at choline more is because it contributes to phosphatidylcholine, one of the major phospholipids found throughout the brain and nervous system.

Now you understand why I’m often pushing:

• egg yolks

• liver

• sunflower lecithin

Unfortunately, most people still focus on stimulating the brain (e.g. coffee, energy drinks, pre-workouts, etc.).

Way better to think about supplying the nutrients needed to build and maintain the tissue itself.

3. Resilience

Every system that produces energy also produces by-products.

The brain’s high energy demands mean it’s exposed to oxidative stress.

Now, the goal isn’t to eliminate oxidative stress.

Rather, the goal is to build resilience against it.

Of course, focus on the fundamentals:

• sleep

• exercise

• fruit and vegetables

• polyphenol-rich foods

• good metabolic health

But this also leads us to a compound that I’m increasingly interested in: fulvic acid.

(Check previous Substacks for info.)

Take Home Message

Most people start thinking about brain health after they notice a problem.

That’s not ideal.

Be pro-active, not reactive:

• train before competition.

• save before retirement.

• strengthen tissue before injury.

Want to protect your brain?

• Energy.

• Structure.

• Resilience.

The rest is details.

Chat soon,

Grant

(Hyaluronic acid is a key ingredient in many beauty products, including our Collagen Beauty Boost).

Today is same, same but different.

Prior to founding Propel Health, I’d never heard of Fulvic Acid.

This is coming from someone who has spent over two decades coaching, training and consulting, who always believed nutrition underpinned performance, and who took concussion seriously.

So, there is no judgement if you haven’t heard of it.

What is Fulvic Acid?

Fulvic acid is a naturally occurring compound found in soil, water and certain mineral-rich deposits.

If you have heard about it before, it’s most likely because Fulvic Acid is a component of shilajit, a substance that has been used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine for centuries.

(Or better, you’ve heard of it because you’ve read about our Daily Bio-Minerals and have made it a staple of our nutrition : )

More recently, researchers have become interested in Fulvic Acid because of its unique properties.

Brain Health

One thing I’ve come to realise is brain health is not something that suddenly becomes important at 75.

It matters at 15.

At 25.

At 45.

And hopefully at 85.

As discussed previously, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease is the accumulation of abnormal proteins in the brain.

Researchers first became interested in fulvic acid after laboratory studies showed it may interfere with the formation of tau protein tangles, one of the hallmark features of Alzheimer's disease.

While this doesn't mean fulvic acid prevents or treats Alzheimer's, the findings were intriguing enough to spark ongoing research into its potential role in supporting brain health and healthy cognitive ageing.

Latest Research

Now we have a 2025 systematic review concluding that fulvic acid continues to show promise because of its

1. Antioxidant properties

2. Anti-inflammatory properties

3. Neuroprotective properties.

Researchers highlighted its potential role in supporting healthy brain aging and protecting against some of the biological processes involved in neurodegeneration.

Again, we’re not talking about a cure - we’re talking about a naturally occurring compound that appears to be interacting with several pathways that scientists believe matter for long-term brain health.

Learning from Other Fields

This is where “cross-pollination looks like innovation” comes into it.

Anyone who has worked around contact and collision sports understands that TBIs are not simply about symptoms today.

We’re increasingly interested in what repeated impacts may mean decades later.

The conversation around concussion has evolved dramatically over the past twenty years.

Today we understand that inflammation, oxidative stress and neuronal damage can have consequences that extend far beyond the initial injury.

That’s why we should take this research into compounds that may support brain health seriously.

Maybe fulvic acid ultimately proves to be highly significant.

Maybe it doesn’t.

But just like the hyaluronic acid research that started in beauty clinics before catching the attention of sports scientists, this is exactly how cross-pollination works.

A curious finding in one field.

A question in another.

And occasionally, a genuinely useful idea hiding where nobody thought to look.

Chat soon,

Grant

First up, congratulations on your career. Competing at the highest-level puts you amongst a select group of individuals, an achievement that most of us could only dream of accomplishing. In that regard, you have earned respect. There is no doubt that that you will have lots to offer as you transition into the coaching realm.

Secondly, it is fantastic to hear that you’re interested in contributing to the sport through coaching – there is no doubt you’ll have much to give the next generation of athletes.

While wishing you the best in your transition, it would be remiss of us not to provide you with some insight we have gathered through our own collective careers. This information will hopefully help you navigate your new vocation.

It’s interesting that many people think ‘a great athlete will make a great coach’ yet there are not many who would think that ‘a great coach will make a great athlete’.

It seems that in the second paradigm we understand that the skills do not transfer well - they’re different domains; but in the first paradigm the misconception is that the skills do transfer well.

While we understand the ’10,000 Hour Rule’ is less of a rule and more of a ‘good message’ it could help you in your coaching.

Understanding that it might have taken you about ten years to become an expert athlete, it might take you about ten years before you could consider yourself an expert coach. Remember this and enjoy the journey.

If you believed most coaching courses, you’d be forgiven for having the impression that coaching is mainly about addressing the Technical, Tactical, Physical & Mental aspects of the sport.

This leads to the assumption that you, the former athlete, should excel at coaching and hit the ground running. It makes sense to the uninitiated: You’ve obviously had a good appreciation of the Technical & Tactical aspects; you would’ve had some of the best physical training (though we have to ask: did you understand the principles being applied or did you just do what you were told?); as well as some exposure to Mental training too.

Unfortunately, this is quite far from the truth. Speak to any experienced coach and you’ll see that they’re more interested in learning how to build their relationship with their athletes. They understand that no rapport means no influence, which means no impact.

In other words: Connect before you Direct.

‘How and when to give feedback’ is another critical area for a coach to understand. Early on in our careers, coaching is mainly about ‘us’ (our way, our methods, our influence, what we want to say) but, as we progress, we learn that it is actually about the athlete and giving them what they need, when they need it.

This is a skill that can be learnt, over time.

There are a range of other skills that you’ll need to learn:

• how to build a culture,

• how to motivate your charges,

• how to select your coaching staff,

• etc.

Very few of the skills you had as an athlete will help you in this regard.

There will probably be other steep learning curves ahead: as an athlete your ability to believe in what you were told could have a significant effect on your performance.

In fact, more belief could translate into more success: your belief in ice baths could help your recovery; your belief in altitude training could help your fitness levels; your belief in the fabric of your competition-clothing could help your confidence levels.

However, as a coach you need to have healthy doses of doubt and skepticism.

You will need to question everything. And you should expect that the answers you receive are backed up with robust evidence. This change in mindset won’t be easy but it will be necessary.

Something else that was praised when you were an athlete is now going to handicap you as a coach: loyalty.

Your loyalty to that one club, or your loyalty to that one coach, means that your exposure to different training methods and protocols has been inhibited. Remember, there are many ways to skin a cat (apparently).

You’re going to have to get out and learn from other coaches, other teams, other countries and other sports.

And never think ‘That could never work in my sport’ because it probably could, you’re just not experienced enough to understand how, why and where.

Following the same lines, please do not even think about coaching at the club you competed at, no matter how much the board plead and beg. For your own development, get out and learn. You could always return later, better prepared.

Having coached developmental athletes for over two decades, we understand how your confidence in your ability to coach, though unproven, will still be high.

We have seen your coaches build you up; we have seen the fans adore you and how the press embraces you. We have seen your managers minimise your faults and emphasise your strengths. We have seen how many people agree with you and how few correct you.

When you become a coach, you’ll need to shun most of these people and surround yourself with those that can stand up to you, disagree with you and correct you. These are the people who you can trust; the others are just going along for the ride.

Lastly, we are going to wish that you experience a fair amount of failure in your first two to three years of coaching. It sounds negative but it isn’t.

Too many young coaches who experience early success think they know all the answers when, in fact, they haven’t been asked all the questions.

This perceived failure will be a blessing, as it will force you to extend yourself; seeking and creating learning opportunities, potentially leading to sustained, long term success.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and good luck with your coaching journey.

Regards,

Your Fellow Coaches

PS Never, ever use the phrase ‘back in my day…’

High Performance Coaches would periodise their athletes training loads - hard weeks, medium weeks and de-load weeks.

Even novice coaches are taught this (it’s a major part of the ASCA Level 1 course).

Yet, when it came to recovery, the same detail of periodisation wasn’t applied.

Coaches seem to recognise their athletes will accommodate to the training load… but seem to forget they will also accommodate to the recovery stimulus.

We see a similar thing in performance nutrition.

It’s as if athletes require the exact same support during:

• deload weeks

• exams

• travel

• relationship stress

• heavy competition blocks

• periods of poor sleep

• emotionally stressful periods

We intuitively accept training load changes physiological demand.

Yet supplementation is often discussed as if requirements remain identical year-round.

This never made much sense to me.

If you periodise almost everything:

• volume

• intensity

• conditioning

• technical work

• recovery

• exposure to stress

Why wouldn’t nutritional demand fluctuate too?

Stress & Choline

As mentioned previously, I started noticing some of the best performance ideas came from outside traditional sports science.

And recently I came across an interesting neuroscience paper looking at anxiety disorders and brain chemistry.

Researchers found reduced levels of choline-containing compounds in cortical brain regions and suggested chronic arousal may increase the brain’s metabolic demand for choline compounds.

In other words, our brains seem to use more choline during periods of high stress.

High stress/anxiety = Low brain choline

(We already know the benefits of choline include helping older adults increase both strength & muscle).

As a Coach, one of my first questions is how can I use this info?

Do I suggest supplementation?

Well, the authors suggest:

Further studies… including the possibility of therapeutic benefit from appropriate choline supplementation.

So right now there isn’t strong evidence that supplementing choline is going to improve your athlete’s cognitive/emotional abilities during these periods of high stress.

Ok… But I am a practitioner, not an academic.

I’d prefer not to wait 10 years for the peer-reviewed, double-blind, human control study to come out if there is something safe and effective I can use right now.

Start with Whole Foods

Before introducing a choline supplement, my starting point is: whole foods.

And both egg yolk and beef liver are high in choline.

(First option might be an easier sell than the second : )

Once those boxes are ticked (or at least, tried), we can explore supplementation:

Sunflower Lecithin.

(Not soy lecithin.)

Sunflower Lecithin naturally contains phosphatidylcholine, one of the major choline-containing phospholipids found in our brains.

It’s a powder and can easily be mixed into smoothies or sprinkled on food.

And I wouldn’t feel the need to supplement all year with it… Just during the high stress periods.

Take Home Message

The bigger lesson here isn’t about choline.

It’s about periodisation.

During periods of elevated stress, (e.g. exams, travel, relationship issues, poor sleep, financial pressure or a demanding competition schedule) physiological, psychological and nutritional demand changes.

Support should be matched to demand… Periodisation isn't just for training.

Chat soon,

Grant

Tennis. BMX. MTB. MotoX. Football codes.

One thing I noticed:

Cross pollination looks like Innovation.

Or maybe,

Cross pollination IS Innovation.

I had to learn bench press mechanics when I was training an elite powerlifter.

Later, those lessons underpinned how I coached upper body strength in skinny tennis players.

Concussion and TBI research made me think differently about creatine long before most performance coaches started discussing “brain energy.”

Then gut health research started influencing how I thought about recovery, illness resilience and athlete availability.

Recently I’ve been reading research on ingesting hyaluronic acid (HA).

(Context: It’s a key ingredient in our Collagen Beauty Boost and, yes, supplementing with HA has been shown to “inhibits skin wrinkles and improves skin condition.”)

Not from sports science journals.

Beauty research.

Most people hear “hyaluronic acid” and think:

• skin care

• wrinkles

• cosmetic clinics

But as you know, skin, fascia, tendons, ligaments and joint surfaces are all connective tissues.

And in high performance sport, connective tissue quality matters.

So the question is, if oral hyaluronic acid improves skin hydration and tissue quality… Could there also be implications for:

• tendon resilience?

• joint tolerance?

• fascia quality?

• load absorption?

• recovery capacity?

To be clear, I’m not I saying “oral HA prevents injuries.”

I’m saying this is how cross pollination starts.

In most cases (an ideal world?) it would be:

1. Curiosity

2. Research

3. Application.

But at the pointier ends of human performance it’s:

1. Curiosity

2. Application

3. (…. and years later) Research.

There is growing evidence that injectable HA may help in certain tendinous conditions including:

• Shoulders

• Tendons

• Patellar tendons

• Sport-related tendinopathies

That does not automatically mean oral HA does the same thing.

But it may be enough to justify curiosity.

Particularly when thinking about:

• older athletes with years of accumulated loading
• athletes transitioning surfaces (e.g. from clay court to hard court)
• high tendon-load environments (e.g. volleyball or basketball)
• connective tissue recovery during dense competition blocks

Maybe the next useful performance idea is hiding in another industry entirely.

And maybe I should get our Collagen Beauty Boost HASTA certified : )

Chat soon,

Grant

While I’d previously consulted, advised and promoted products and brands, it’s been three years of making the final decisions.

In the coming weeks I’ll share some of the lessons I’ve learned but this week is about setting the groundwork.

Everything I write below, you should already know.

So here’s a little peek behind the curtain.

Ingredients Are Listed by Weight

Too many people assume the first ingredient listed is the “main active ingredient.”

Not always.

Often the biggest ingredient is:

• flavouring

• filler

• sweetener

• cheap base powder

While the ingredient you actually bought the product for might only be present in tiny amounts.

This is why the ingredient panel matters far more than the front label.

“Proprietary Blend” Usually Means “Trust Us”

“Proprietary blend” might sound scientific, premium or advanced.

It’s none of those things.

Your default thought should be:

This company does not want to tell me how much of each ingredient is inside.

And the reason they don’t want to tell you… Is not because there is too much of the expensive/active ingredients….

For example, if someone blended magnesium oxide (cheap, poor bioavailability) and magnesium glycinate (expensive, good bioavailability) and called it Magnesium Proprietary Blend, your default thought should be that it’s most likely 99% oxide and 1% glycinate.

Better Taste Usually Means More Additives

If you want:

• great mix-ability

• smooth mouth feel

• perfect sweetness

• pleasant after taste

• no clumping

You’re going to have to compromise on the effectiveness of your supplement.

Facts.

Beetroot powder clumps (it’s the natural sugars).

Creatine is gritty & doesn’t dissolve well.

Moringa powder tastes, um, healthy.

Stevia leaves a bitter after-taste.

You can either accept these or compromise on the health benefits.

Not both.

More Ingredients = Less Effective Doses

A big misconception in supplements.

People think: more ingredients = better products.

(POP QUIZ: What international supplement brand am I thinking of right now? Ha!)

Usually the opposite is true.

The more ingredients added:

• the smaller the doses become

• the harder it is to formulate properly

• the more marketing starts driving the formula

A simple, properly dosed product often outperforms the “everything formula.”

(And add in mix-ability, mouth feel, after taste and you’re having a milk shake, not a health shake).

Real Food Powders Change Batch to Batch

I often get asked for the nitrate content of our Beetroot Powder.

Or the iron content of our Moringa Powder.

But the best answer I can give is a range, not an exact amount.

Just as the nutrient content of an apple changes based on where it was produced, the rainfall of that season, the nutrients in the soil, etc.

Same with the powders made from those foods.

Ironically, perfect consistency often requires more processing, more standardisation and more manipulation.

Our Standard Is Simple

Yes, I look at:

• Certificates of Analysis (COA)

• testing

• sourcing

• contaminants

• glyphosate

• heavy metals

But my real filter is simpler:

Would I give this to my kids?

If the answer is no, I do not sell it.

Chat soon,

Grant

To celebrate our 3 years, I’m offering you 15% off our entire Sports Nutrition range when you order through this link (available all weekend).

I started around 2012 and some years I’d present as many as 6.

During the Nutrition section we’d inevitably chat about alcohol and training…

As a Coach, would you advise against alcohol? Would you ban it? Would you provide it?

This question always divided the delegates. And most had a strong opinion either way.

My stance?

My athletes are people first.

In other words, after a tough training block, or an intense match, if the athlete(s) wanted a quiet drink to socialise with teammates or coaches, I’d happily provide the drinks.

I apply a similar mindset to nutrition - athletes are people first.

So before I recommend ‘high performance supplements’ (whatever those are?), we first dial in their ‘health’ nutrition.

One of my most frequently prescribed health supplements to help improve health is beetroot powder.

Most coaches, exercise physiologists, dietitians, etc. seem to know about:

high nitrate content → conversion to nitric oxide (NO) → NO dilates blood vessels → this can help:

• Athletes (endurance)

• Erectile dysfunction

• Reduce hypertension

• etc

But if you’re judging beetroot on its NO capabilities alone, you’re missing out.

This 2015 study concludes:

In the human studies to date, beetroot supplementation has been reported to reduce blood pressure, attenuate inflammation, avert oxidative stress, preserve endothelial function and restore cerebrovascular haemodynamics.

And this 2026 study concludes that beetroot can:

…support vascular, metabolic and cognitive function…

While this 2021 study concludes:

…we have illustrated the ability of the main active beetroot ingredients in antioxidant, antitumor, lowing blood pressure, blood lipid, blood glucose, improving exercise performance, and many other aspects…

There is plenty more evidence out there and I am not going to do all your work for you.

But before you shoot out to grab some beetroot powder, ensure it’s:

• Air, not spray, dried (the lower heat ensures more nutrients are preserved)

• Glyphosate free (no point in poisoning your body in an attempt to get healthier)

Any questions or comments, leave below and I’ll reply.

Chat soon,

Grant

*Evidence-based, not necessarily HASTA certified.

Because it is most likely affecting your health.

Glyphosate is recognised as the world’s most widely used herbicide and this 2020 study concluded:

…approximately 81 % of the U.S. general population 6 years of age and older had been recently exposed to glyphosate.

Combine the fact that glyphosate has been used in Australia for at least 40 years, and it is in over 500 registered products, there is little reason to suggest our results would be much different to those in the U.S.

Not only is it a weed killer, in some crops, it’s used right before harvest to dry them out evenly.

Implication:

1. Less time to break down; and

2. Potentially higher residues in the final product.

Food Standards Australia & New Zealand (FSANZ) has found:

From a dietary perspective: At the highest concentration in bread…

and

…there was a single detection of glyphosate in infant cereal…

(This is from an independent blog post, not a published study, and it suggests glyphosate is often found in cereals.)

The Shikimate Pathway

The argument for glyphosate safety rests mainly on the Shikimate pathway.

Simply, this pathway is used by plants to produce essential amino acids.

And animals (including humans) don’t have this pathway so glyphosate cannot affect us.

That’s the theory anyway.

But what if glyphosate affects us another way?

Glyphosate and Your Gut

A large analysis of human microbiome data found that more than half of our common gut bacterial species may be sensitive to glyphosate and that:

...research points to the herbicide’s potential to disrupt healthy microbiomes...

(You can read more here.)

Let’s take stock of where we’re at:

1. We all know the importance of gut health (e.g. nutrient absorption, sleep, immune system, gut-brain axis, etc.)

2. About 80% of us have glyphosate in our systems (it’s been found in our food chain).

3. We’re told glyphosate is safe for humans (Shikimate pathway).

4. But more than half of our gut bacteria may be affected by glyphosate.

What Can You Do About It?

1) Via Negativa

Start with what you eat most frequently.

• breakfast cereals

• bread

• grains

• fruit

If it’s daily, upgrade.

2) Ask the Questions

Instead of only asking “Is this healthy?” (i.e. good nutrients).

Also ask “Has this been tested?”

Especially for:

• wheat, corn, etc.

• fibres (PHGG, inulin)

• superfoods (moringa, beetroot, etc.)

If a brand can’t answer that clearly… that tells you something.

3) Think long-term, not perfect

Don’t stress about one meal.

Rather, reduce exposure every day, over years.

The Takeaway

Glyphosate isn’t fringe.

It’s part of our food and supplement system.

If you’re investing in your health with plant-based foods and supplements… it’s worth making sure they’re as clean as the lifestyle you’re trying to build.

You can see why Propel Health independently tests all our plant-based powders, especially our gut health products.

No point in taking gut health supplements that are negatively affecting your gut health.

Chat soon,

Grant

“It’s n=1.”

“The plural of anecdote is not data.”

“That’s called the placebo effect.”

Don’t care.

But before we go into it, let’s set the groundwork.

Background

I started taking creatine at Uni in the mid to late 90s.

Back then the guidelines were loading phase (25g per day for the first 5 days, and always with grape juice) and then 5g maintenance.

The focus was on the physical benefits.

Fast forward to 2005 when I was asked to write a position stand on creatine and read, summarised and processed about 70 studies on the amino acid.

And I’ve been recommending it professionally since about 2001. My international tennis players were using it for travel fatigue and jet lag from about 2008; my extreme sport athletes used it for concussions (traumatic brain injuries) since 2013 and my perimenopausal clients have been using it for brain fog since 2016.

Point is, I have an understanding on how it works, the safety profile and benefits.

The Cycle

My belief is anything that is taken at above-natural-levels can produce (unknown?) side effects at above-natural-levels.

So I exercise some caution - I cycle (or periodise) my creatine

Typically, it’s a 6 week on, 1 to 2 weeks off cycle.

This off-cycle has been the longest (3 weeks) because the on-cycle has been the longest.

(When you have a supplement company it’s sometimes easier to be in the on-cycle than the off-cycle : )

Effects

Well, have I noticed the difference!

Not physically - about to turn 48 and am not pushing any physical boundaries : )

Cognitively!

Little things, but noticeable.

Emails without attachments. Forgetting about meetings (until the reminder pops up). Doubling up on orders (because I’d forgotten I’d already done that).

Just not as sharp as I feel I can be.

Sure, it could be my age… But it’s synced perfectly with this off-cycle (see criticism 3 in the first paragraph).

Coincidence?

Just this morning I was chatting to an NRL coach about sponsoring a national team and the topic of creatine came up.

He too can feel the difference when he is off it (and he only goes off one week at a time).

Via Negativa

It seems that we might notice the cognitive benefits of creatine less when we cycle on (some studies suggests it could be as long as 4 weeks to notice the effects on the brain in TBI patients), and more when we cycle off.

Anyway, over to you - how does it affect you?

Chat soon,

Grant

PS Got an athlete/club that might be looking for a sponsorship? We’re at the early stages of helping athletes, so reach out.