Welcome to the huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew huberman. And I'm a professor of neurobiology and Ophthalmology at
Stanford school of medicine.
Today, we are discussing ways to improve your Fitness in particular. We are going to discuss tools that you can incorporate into your existing Fitness
routine that will allow
you to make significant Improvement without
having to invest a lot of extra time. Most all
of the tools we are going to discuss today.
We're gleaned from the six episodes that we
did with dr. Andy
Galpin. We provide a link to those full episodes in the show notes. Captions, of course, now those episodes included a very large number of protocols, everything from how to build a fitness routine to how to enhance recovery nutrition and supplementation, exercises and routines aimed specifically at strength or hypertrophy or endurance or building anaerobic capacity what I've done is to select key. Protocols from those episodes that I myself have started to incorporate into my
Existing Fitness routine and that I think will be especially beneficial and frankly fun for you to incorporate into your Fitness routine. Now, a little bit later in this episode, I review the key components of any fitness program, that is the number and type of cardiovascular, training sessions, and resistance, training sessions that are in central for everyone to include as a template, or a foundation for their overall fitness program. Now a little bit later in the episode, I will be sure to review. What are the essential components of any
fitness program?
So the
number and type of resistance, training sessions, the number and type
of cardiovascular training sessions,
as well as some of the elements of how those are arranged to ensure proper and adequate recovery between sessions so that you can continue to make ongoing
progress.
However, the bulk of today's discussion is going to focus on tools, that you can use again, very easily, very quickly. In some cases, even saving you time
during your fitness regimen
in order to improve all
aspects of your Fitness, your endurance, your muscular endurance, your
Aerobic capacity, your recovery, your strength, your hypertrophy,
and in describing these tools to improve your Fitness. It also provides an opportunity for each and all of us to step back from our existing Fitness routine and ask whether or not it's really checking off all the boxes that are necessary as well as where we can be more economical with our time. In our efforts, in order to reach our specific goals related
to exercise and performance.
So by the end of today's episode, you can be sure that you have at least one and as many as 12 tools that you can incorporate into your existing Fitness,
Routine again, without adding much
additional time or effort, that are sure to accelerate your progress.
Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is
separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is however, a part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to Consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public in
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let's talk about tools to improve your Fitness before we do that. However, I just want to briefly remind everybody, what constitutes a core or a foundational fitness program. Now what I'm about to describe is not for the athlete that's trying to just improve one.
Effect of fitness or sports
performance. So for instance, if you are a
power lifter and your main goal is to move more weight on the core power lifting movements, or if you are somebody training for a marathon, it's likely that your core fitness program will differ substantially
from what I'm about to describe.
However, the vast majority of you are almost certainly trying to have some level of cardiovascular
fitness. So the ability perhaps to
run a mile or more certainly to be able to
walk up a flight of stairs without
Getting winded. You almost certainly want some degree of strength. The ability to perhaps pick up a heavy load of groceries and carry it. In one
arm as you carry something else in the other arm,
you want the ability to help move furniture. You want the ability. Certainly to not injure yourself when performing daily
tasks and perhaps, you also want to be able to go out and play a pickup game of basketball, or soccer, or to go out on a
long hike with the family without feeling. So sore, that you have to rest in bed. The next day, an optimal fitness program.
Of the sort that was covered in the optimal
Fitness, protocols episode that I did
is therefore one that checks off the major boxes, that science tells us are important for health span and for lifespan. And that can also help us improve various aspects of performance and improve
various aspects of Aesthetics whether it's Fat Loss or muscle growth if we choose.
So, without going into that program, in a lot of detail, the core elements of it are that it include, at least 150 minutes and ideally more like 200
It's per week so called Zone to cardio. I'll talk a little bit more about Zone to cardio a little bit later in the episode. But Zone do cardio is for those of you that don't know, the type of cardiovascular exercise that you can do while maintaining a conversation without getting winded. But that if you were to push a little bit harder that you would find it hard to complete your sentences in general zone. Two cardio is the sort that you can do while purely nasal breathing
unless you need to talk of course it's perfectly fine to talk while doing Zone to
cardio. And again this is
Scientific research tells us that we should all be getting at least 150
minutes, and probably more, like, 200 minutes of Zone to cardio per week.
Now, in addition, to that, a foundational or optimal fitness program, for most people is going to include anywhere from two to four cardiovascular, training sessions that are
separate. That's right. Separate from the zone to cardio
as well as 224 resistance or strength. Training, sometimes, also aimed
at hypertrophy or muscle growth training sessions.
Now we have to
Knowledge that most people are probably not going to hit the upper threshold of all of those three
things. Most people simply do
not have the time and or discipline to get 200 minutes of zone, two cardio per week, plus, for resistance training sessions. Plus for
cardiovascular, training sessions, that are separate from the zone to
cardio as a consequence, the optimal fitness program that I described in that
episode. And by the way, it's the program that I've essentially followed for the last 30 years or more
includes three.
Ocular training sessions. So one longer duration, sort of typical endurance type
training. This would be a long slow jog, or a
long hike. One day per week as well as a shorter, cardiovascular training session of about 25 to 30 minutes,
moving a bit faster. Getting the heart rate up a bit more breathing, a little bit
harder, as well. As one very short,
cardiovascular, training session that would fall under the category of high
intensity interval training, things
like Sprint's, which don't necessarily have to be done running to be done on a rower could be done on a bike.
Etc.
So three cardiovascular training sessions, as well as three resistance training sessions.
I want to acknowledge
that resistance training can be done with body. Weight can be done with weights with machines. I talked about the differing Virtues Of one approach versus another, but nonetheless three resistance training sessions, one focusing specifically on leg training one, Focus specifically
on torso training. That's right. Chest shoulders, and back all together, as well as some neck training for important reasons that were mentioned.
And in that episode
and then a third session that was aimed at somewhat smaller body, parts, biceps triceps,
calves and some other small body parts that tend to be neglected and that are important to train. If one wants to encourage muscular,
balance, both aesthetically and structurally to avoid injury and
have excellent posture.
So those were the core elements of that foundational, fitness program. And I mentioned then and I'll mention again now that that program is not a mandated is not an absolute requirement.
Anyone to follow
it was simply meant as a template from which people could evaluate their own existing fitness
program. Perhaps modify it somewhat or a
lot. Or if you're interested in trying that specific
fitness program that you could do that and we have provided a
link both to that episode in the show notes captions, but we've also provided a link to a table or chart that describes that foundational fitness program. It provides examples of different cardiovascular training and resistance type training sessions, and it describes some potential a
Exercises in the rationale for those
exercises and the rationale for selecting particular repetition ranges and rest between sets
all that information is available. Completely a zero cost, you don't even need to sign up for anything. You simply go to the link that we provide in the show. No captions. And there's a downloadable
PDF there for you to explore. Now, in addition to the solo episode that I did about optimal Fitness, protocols,
we did a six-episode guest
series with dr. Andy Galpin, who is a professor of physiology at Cal State
Fullerton, and a world expert.
In all aspects of exercise and muscle physiology that episode described a lot of the
science. And in particular science, back tools
for improving everything
from long distance endurance to anaerobic capacity strength, hypertrophy speed power recovery nutrition supplementation and ways to develop a year-long
program that will ensure you ongoing progress
in that series, dr. Andy Galpin, provided an
enormous amount of valuable information
such
That anyone and everyone, meaning the person who's just interested in starting a fitness program or improving their existing fitness program, or the elite athlete, who is interested in, improving their sprint times or their
jump, height or their power lifting or their marathon time could
clearly benefit from some or all of the protocols that he described now, because that series is so
extensive, in terms of its depth and breadth again, providing so much value at zero cost. Thanks to dr. Andy galvan's
expertise, but at
Same time because it might be a little bit intimidating for many people out there to try and figure out which protocols to
incorporate into their existing fitness
regimen. I thought it would be fun and very beneficial to talk about some of the key tools that were described throughout
that series that one
could consider incorporating into their existing Fitness routine now.
So that's what this episode is really about. It's about the
tools that I personally glean from those discussions and that I found to be of tremendous value in improving. Both my cardiovascular fitness
He's my strength and hypertrophy training my recovery and other aspects of My overall Fitness protocols. And when I say beneficial I mean in terms of improving my cardiovascular fitness, improving my strength and hypertrophy training and that have improved the various
metrics of Fitness lifespan and health span, which include things like, heart, rate, variability resting, heart rate, blood pressure, VO2
max as well as some of the fitness metrics that were described
during that episode series with dr. Andy Galpin,
such as performance
metrics the
You do
jump a certain distance, the ability to run a certain speed or to run a certain distance at a given speed the ability to move weights in good
form for certain number of repetitions again, all of the metrics of performance and health are
going to vary tremendously from person to person, depending on where you're starting. How long you've been
training and other aspects of your
health.
The tools described in today's episode are
designed for everybody. Again, these are simple tools that you can
put into your existing routine that should really move the needle
forward.
In terms of improving your overall levels of fitness and health,
okay, let's talk about the tools to improve your Fitness. The first tool is to mesh your Zone to cardio with your daily activities. So for those of you that don't know, zone, two cardio is the type of movement that we
typically call cardio exercise
that elevates, your heart rate, somewhat increases your breathing somewhat, but that still allows you to carry out a conversation without having to pause or to gasp in order to complete your
It says,
okay, so that's a general rule of thumb for Zone to cardio. Now, for those of you that use a fitness tracker, you can monitor whether or not you are in zone 2, cardio, very precisely. But if you're like me and you don't use a fitness tracker, it's very easy to know if you're in zone, two cardio because again, it's that level of output that puts you right below or somewhat below the threshold where if you were to exert yourself with any more intensity that you wouldn't be able to complete your sentences.
This could, of course, be evaluated
by jogging with someone or walking with someone, or hiking with someone and carrying out a conversation. If somebody isn't available, you could, of course, do this by trying to speak out loud and have a conversation with
yourself or if you want another way to monitor whether or not, you're in zone 2 cardio without having to use a fitness tracker, you could simply ask yourself whether or not, you are maintaining a level of output that increases your heart rate and your breathing,
but that allows you to maintain purely nasal breathing the entire time. And
Any of those approaches will tell you more or less
whether or not you're in zone 2 cardio.
Now, the scientific data tell us that we should all be getting anywhere from 150 minutes to 200 minutes per week, minimum of Zone to cardio for sake of cardiovascular health cerebrovascular, health, and a number of other aspects
of Health that are important essentially to everybody for health span and lifespan.
Many people including myself schedules own to cardio into their weekly fitness regimen. So for me I have one day a week for me it falls on a Sunday where I go out for a jog that lasts anywhere from 60 Minutes to 90 minutes, it's a slow
jog. I can maintain nasal breathing the entire time or have a conversation with somebody else or myself the entire time if I like
or sometimes it consists of a hike by myself or with other people and sometimes those hikes
Extend anywhere from an hour to four hours
depending on the circumstances,
Etc. I will mention that
whenever possible I try and do that once a week zone. Two cardio session Out of Doors, because I like being in nature and I like getting sunlight and I like, getting fresh
air now, during the discussion with dr. Andy Galpin. I explained how I get my zone to cardio and I acknowledge that that once a week session, doesn't always allow me to reach that hundred,
fifty minute to 200 minute, minimum threshold of zone, two cardio per week,
It does sometimes it doesn't and his
response to that was very reassuring. What he said was look, if you want to schedule Zone to cardio and
head out for a long Sunday, jog, or hike,
terrific, if you want to schedule Zone to cardio as two or more sessions on the treadmill or on the bike great but that he doesn't actually think of Zone to cardio as exercise at all
and to that I gasped and then I was a
little bit deflated. I thought oh great, I'm doing all this.
Into cardio and you don't even consider that exercise and then, when he said it was very reassuring and I think it's going to be very reassuring to
all of you. He said, first of all
zone, two cardio is absolutely critical to our
health for a number of reasons that I already mentioned
but in addition to that zone to cardio does not impede. And in fact can
enhance our other aspects of Fitness. So for example, our strength training are hypertrophy training or any type of speed work or other types of cardiovascular training. One might do
And that the best way to get Zone to cardio is okay, if you want to schedule it schedule it as a session but that to Simply increase the amount of walking, and in particular walking at a
rapid Pace, that one does
and to increase the total amount of movement that one's getting throughout the week. So, taking groceries in and out of the grocery store, running around with the kids, taking a walk with a co-worker while having a work discussion, taking your calls for work
while pacing in the office or going outside.
He impressed on me, is that zone to cardio can be
meshed throughout the daily activities that I and everybody else generally have to
do. And this was a great relief
to me because I as many of you are
and extremely busy, I don't have time to scheduling
more cardio per week or at least I don't see the way I could do that without reducing the amount of sleep that I'm getting
or without reducing the
amount of social connection that I'm getting with family and friends, both of which are extremely important to our mental health and
physical health. So, the basic tool here is
Yes, get 200 minutes per week,
minimum of Zone to cardio. And notice, I said, 200 minutes, not 150 minutes to 200 minutes. I'm going to set the higher
threshold of 200 minutes per week, minimum
of Zone to cardio
but that you don't need to schedule
that as time on the treadmill if you want to great
but what was communicated to me from dr. Andy Galpin is that zone to cardio is immensely, beneficial. It's not going to impede.
And in fact, it's going to improve other aspects of fitness and that it does not have to
impede.
And it in fact can improve other
aspects of our daily life, like our ability to engage socially, our ability to have a great output at work and whatever type of work you do.
So the message is very simple. Get
200 minutes or more of zone, two cardio per week and the message is
also a very reassuring
one, which is that that zone to cardio can be spread throughout your daily
activities and that if you're doing enough of it, you probably don't even
have to count. The total amount of Zone to cardio that you're getting
if you simply make the effort to move around,
A lot more during your daily activities and to mesh that zone to cardio with your daily activities. You're going to hit that threshold of 200 minutes per week minimum.
Now, that's a great message for me because I'm already doing the three resistance training workouts
per week. I'm doing what now. I can just call the
two other cardiovascular training workouts per week. Because
now I don't even count that long Sunday jog or Sunday hike as exercise. I just consider that movement out of doors on the weekend and in doing so
it's also allowed me to really enjoy
joy that a lot more. There's something about considering something a Fitness training program that shifts it from Just Recreation and enjoying life to training and
I of course love training. I love training in the gym and I love training out-of-doors. I love running. I love lifting weights. I love all sorts of physical training.
I know many people do I know many people don't but if one looks at Zone to cardio as just part of their daily life, you're far more likely to get that zone to cardio in and all the benefits that come with it and
Also, opening up time for work for social engagements, and to do and pay attention to other aspects of
Fitness, which is what we're going to talk about next. The second tool that I've incorporated into my fitness regimen and that I believe can be of great
benefit to frankly. Everybody is to start including low repetition
pure strength work.
Now, some of you may already be doing low
repetition pure strength work,
but I believe that most people don't most
Most people who do resistance training are using either machines or free weights or some combination of those or perhaps are using body weight and they tend to focus on repetition. Ranges from about 5 and usually more like six repetitions out to about 10 and
perhaps 15 repetitions now, of course, doing resistance training in repetition, ranges of 5 to 15 reps per set
provided. It's done at sufficient intensity. So, either to failure close to
You're of course, in good form is tremendously beneficial, it can help build strength. It can enhance hypertrophy. There is tremendous value to
training in those repetition ranges,
but when I sat down with dr. Andy Galpin to discuss resistance training, specifically. He made it very clear that at least for some portion of one's yearly training
cycle, so perhaps eight weeks or 10 weeks. Or
in the case that I adopted 12 weeks, there is tremendous benefit to training in the
325 repetition range, and
maybe even lower. So, the second to love training, specifically for
strength, and this 325 repetition range is something that I started to incorporate after I sat down to record that series and I'll
just tell you a few of the benefits that I've experienced. And then I'll tell you the specific
protocol. That makes it very easy to do this.
The most obvious benefit to me was that I got much stronger, and that, that strength persisted, such that when I went back to using higher repetition ranges. So, typically I train with weights or machines in
9:54 repetition range,
sometimes a little higher sometimes, a little lower, but never before, had I specifically trained in the 325 repetition range exclusively
for a period of 10 to 12 weeks. And when I did that, I, of course gained strength. But that
strength stayed with me such that when I returned to hire
repetition ranges, I could use more weight in good form and that of course enhanced strength and hypertrophy further.
In addition there was another effect that was at least to me very unexpected. Which was that Mike
Cardiovascular
training improves significantly. Now,
why would this be? Because typically a three to
five repetitions set.
Does not Elevate the heart rate for
long enough that you would consider it cardiovascular training.
And of course, the rest periods between those sets is pretty long as
well. So even if heart rate goes up during those heavy sets, it's going to go down during those long three to five minute, rest periods between those sets.
But what I noticed was that my overall posture and my ability to maintain,
cardiovascular output while using
good running form or good rowing for
Was also vastly improved and The Logical
interpretation. Why that would be is simply that the muscles got stronger and those same muscles are being
incorporated into the cardiovascular. Let's call it endurance. Work that I'm doing on other days and therefore, I can carry out those cardiovascular. Training sessions in better form for longer periods of time, I actually
felt much stronger
during my cardiovascular training. As I got much stronger moving these heavier weight loads for low repetition sets
and
Then the third specific benefit that I noticed, is that, when training heavy for three, to five repetitions per
set, I didn't get sore.
And this to me was an incredible benefit because typically, when I trained in the six repetition 215 repetition
range and I take those sets to
failure or near failure, I do experience some soreness the next day ordinarily that soreness isn't so intense that it prevents me from doing any of the other sorts of workouts that I do. And for those of you that have visited, that foundational Fitness protocol.
You know, that I hit each major and minor muscle group once per week directly as well as once per week indirectly. That's the overall structure of that program.
In order to allow sufficient recovery between those resistance
training workouts to be able to make continual progress. Now,
by training in this 325 repetition
range that, dr. Andy Galvan suggested, I was able to improve my strength improve, my cardiovascular output, reduce soreness also just felt better overall. I had a lot more energy after those workouts than I typically do.
Do after my resistance training sessions
when I use high repetition ranges, we're just a number of different things that made me feel. Wow, this is really a powerful protocol and of course, moving heavier, weights in the gym, feels good to it. Feels good to get
stronger. At least, there's a positive feedback loop there for me. And I think for most people
and I should also mention that for those of you that are averse to doing heavier resistance training, in this
325 repetition range because you fear that it will make you too big or too
bulky. Training, the low repetition ranges is
Lee more geared towards increasing strength and is Shifting away somewhat from
increasing hypertrophy or muscle size. So that's a great benefit for those of you that want to be strong and also want to maintain cardiovascular fitness, but you don't want to add muscular size and of course, for all of you that want to add muscular size, it's well established that increasing your strength will allow you then to return to patterns of hypertrophy training that will allow you to use heavier weights and therefore induce greater hypertrophy.
So there are oh so many reasons.
Reasons to incorporate these strength training,
protocols, so the way that dr. Andy Galpin suggested one do it. And was the way that I did it is to use this three by five protocol. The 3x5 protocol is very straightforward, it involves doing three to five exercises per workout, okay? So if it's a workout for legs, three to five exercises, if it's a workout for some upper body muscle, three to five exercises, three to five exercises for three to five sets per exercise.
Thighs.
Three to five repetitions per set, and three to five minutes of rest between each set.
In addition, he emphasized that one can do those workouts three to five times per week.
Although I'm going to put an asterisk next to that last statement because
I found that I couldn't do the 3x5
protocol.
Say, four legs, specifically, three to five times per week. I realized that might be possible for some people, but I'm somebody who like, many of
you out there either doesn't have the
time or doesn't have the recovery capacity
to train my legs, three to five times per week. Even though
I acknowledge that there are probably ways to do that with. That
would still allow me to recover. It just simply starts to impede
into other areas of training. It starts to impede, other areas of life, like work and family, and sleep and all the
rest. So what I did and what I'm suggesting you
try is
for any existing resistance training that you're doing to take a period of eight or 10, or ideally 12 weeks and do the vast majority. If not all
of that resistance training,
A lower repetition range, that's designed
specifically to induce strength adaptations
and to not pay attention to whether or not you're hitting that same muscle group,
three to five times per week. Rather, if you train your
legs, once or twice per week, to Simply do all of the work for your
legs in that 325 repetition range, if you train an upper body muscle or muscle groups, chest shoulders back
once per week or twice per week to just stay within that
three to five repetition range for those work sets, right? Warm
UPS can include a few more reps
and then to adhere to this three to five
exercises, three to five sets per exercise. Three to five repetitions per set and three to five minutes between sets. Now, the
one exception to this, that I Incorporated was that for very small muscle
groups. So for instance, the rear
deltoids or for neck work,
or for calf work, to
not rely purely on three to five repetitions but maybe to work in a range of anywhere.
From five to eight repetitions. So, still fairly low
repetitions but not
so low, that it restricts you to three to five repetitions. The
reason for that is that I and I think a lot of people out there, find it
hard to fatigue. Those smaller, muscle
groups, adequately with good form when restricting oneself to those low
repetitions however, for big compound movements like presses and squats and deadlifts and glute ham, raises and things of that sort, maybe even leg extensions and leg curls which are isolation exercises.
Of course, to really restrict oneself to those three to five, repetition ranges that take you to failure or near failure. I listed off the benefits of doing that. That I experienced. And I'm confident that you will also experience a lot of benefits. So just to remind you what some of those benefits are you get stronger, which feels great that occurs within your weight workouts, but it also carries over to your endurance training sessions. I also noticed that when we returning to higher repetitions for resistance training,
After 12 weeks, shifting away from three to five repetition, ranges and going back to training in the six to ten repetition range is mainly occasionally up to 12 or 15, but really, mainly restricting to 6 to 10 repetitions
that you can move much heavier weight in good form
and thereby induce more hypertrophy while still also continuing to gain some strength.
And another benefit was
again, reduce soreness compared to when training with high repetition
ranges and more mental
freshness.
It's I guess the only way to describe it when training in those lower repetition ranges. I don't know about you but when I
finish a really hard our
long resistance training session done in the 11:54 repetition range, there's a certain type of mental fatigue that even if I eat properly afterwards, even if I hydrate properly that it tends to sap, a bit of my mental energy later in the day but that the
training at the 325 repetition
range did just the opposite. It actually enhanced, my focus and my cognition My overall levels of physical energy.
Which is great because it allows you to do all the other things that were required to do throughout the day. And by the way, it will also allow you to get more of that zone to cardio. So if you
want more details on the 3x5 protocol, again, that's time-stamped in the
relevant episode on strength and hypertrophy that we did with dr. Andy Galpin. I'll also provide a link to that specific time stamp in the show. No caption to this
episode. I do want to point out that you don't just jump right into heavy sets
of three to five. Repetitions. You need to warm up adequately for some
Well, that warm-up will be high repetition sets. So say 10 to 12 repetitions with, just the empty
bar or a lightweight and then adding a little bit of
weight and doing eight repetitions and maybe
six repetitions. And then your work sets as they're called
of three to five repetitions
or perhaps, you're like me and you prefer to do low repetition warm-up. So this was also
something that I discussed with dr. Andy Galpin and that for me has made a tremendous positive impact on all my resistance training, regardless of whether or not it is low repetition or higher repetition.
And that's to do a brief warm-up
set, that is somewhere in the range of 6 to 8. Repetitions very light just to get familiar with the movement. Then to do a second warm-up set that includes some load on the bar or the free weight or the machine and then a second warm-up set.
Again, this could be free weights or
machines that incorporates a bit more load but still
keeps the repetitions low so in the four to six repetition range and
then maybe especially if it's at the beginning of the
workout and my core body temperature isn't elevated yet.
I'll do
a third warm-up but that third warm up which of course is going to be
progressively a little bit heavier than the first or second warm-up is still going to fall within the low repetition range. So just two to four repetitions
for me, including a few more warm-up sets
with progressively heavier weight on
each warm up, but still keeping the total repetition
count low. So, somewhere in the range of two to six repetitions
has been very beneficial
for improving my work output during the so-called work.
Regardless of whether or not I'm training in the 325 repetition range,
or whether or not I'm training in the 6215 repetition range. I know for some people, this might be kind of surprising, how is it that my work sets are actually higher repetition than my
warm up sets, or put differently how and why is it that my warm up sets are
lower repetition than my work
sets? And that's because I fall into this category of
people that tends to fatigue pretty
quickly when doing resistance training. So for me, keeping the repetition count on any individual warm-up set pretty low
Lo has
allowed me to really improve my strength output and really improve my strength and hypertrophy training when I shift to the so-called work sets.
So I already listed off a number of important documented benefits and
benefits that I've certainly experienced
by incorporating low repetition pure strength work into my yearly training cycle for
periods of 8 to 12 weeks,
in addition to that during my conversation with dr. Andy Galpin. He
said something very important for everyone to hear. And understand.
He said, when you look at the
Eight on aging and performance in particular muscular performance. You see some very interesting patterns within the data. He said, for instance, that for every year after age, 40, there's a 1%
drop in muscle size
that can be offset by resistance training, but that if you don't do resistance training
that you won't offset. And during that series, we also talked about the
minimum requirement for six and
probably more like 10 working sets per muscle group per
week in order.
Order to at least
maintain muscle size,
not just age 40 and Beyond, but even at
younger ages, okay? So that's muscle size, 1%, decrease per year. Unless you do the right
thing. And the right thing is get 6 to 10, working sets per week in order to offset that decrease. And if you trained
properly for hypertrophy, yes, you can still increase muscle, size, pass age, 40.
In addition, he said that there is a three to five percent reduction per year for every year past age, 40 in
Faith and power. Now, that's a very important metric because what it's telling us is that the drop-off in strength and power is
significantly greater per each year after age, 40 then is the decrease in muscle size telling us that we have to do something to offset that decrease in strength and power.
In addition, he mentioned that for every year past age 40 there is an 8 to 10 percent, decrease
in speed and in
explosive -.
And so
if one is interested in maintaining
speed of muscular movement and explosiveness
of muscular movement, something that's perhaps important to a number of you,
one also has to incorporate training specifically, geared toward maintaining or improving
speed and explosiveness. Now,
I like many people. I'm not so interested in speed and explosiveness. I know they have their utility but I am interested in maintaining muscle size over the course of my life. Perhaps even adding some muscle to particular muscle groups. I'm
Very interested in that least maintaining and ideally, even gaining some
strength in certain muscle groups throughout my entire life span. And
that's not just for performance reasons, that's also because we know that maintaining or improving strength of our muscles is very important across the entire lifespan. But especially in the
years spanning from 40 until death, which I think for most people fall somewhere between 50, 60, 70, or ideally out into the 80s 90s or hundreds, right? That's what we are all seeking.
Seeking is to die later in Better Health.
And in order to do that, we have to dedicate some
very specific training protocols in order to maintain or build
strength. So to summarize in addition to
all the positive reasons to do dedicated strength training that I mentioned before,
it's highly recommended that. You do some dedicated strength training for the purposes of offsetting the age-related
decline in strength that occurs. Again, three to five percent per year, past age, 40, which is a pretty significant
decline. But the good news
As
if you do the 325
protocol for say 12 weeks per year and then you continue to resistant strain using other repetition ranges.
Geared towards hypertrophy and strength or perhaps even muscular endurance.
The good news is you'll maintain your
strength and perhaps even build your strength. Offsetting that natural decrease, that would otherwise occur. I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge one of our sponsors. Athletic greens, athletic greens.
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vitamin D3 K to the next tool, am about to describe relates to your cardiovascular training and it's a tool that can greatly improve. Your
cardiovascular, fitness
with a limited amount of
time commitment. But
that is not to say it is easy. What I'm referring to is the so-called sugar cane. If you listen to the series with dr. Andy Galpin, you may recall, our discussion about the sugar cane, which is so named after our friend and expert trainer, Kenny cane and it
A very efficient yet, somewhat brutal way to increase your
cardiovascular output.
So the sugar cane is the type of protocol that you would incorporate Once In the period of a week. But certainly not every week. It's the kind of thing that you might throw in once every two weeks or once. Every four weeks, as a replacement for your other high-intensity interval training, the sugarcane involves, selecting some form of exercise that you can do at high intensity safely out. Of
course, you will differ between individuals
And for some of you, it will be a stationary bike
for others of you. It will be a road bike for others of you will be running and for others of you will be rowing. The exact form of exercise is not important. What is important is that you can generate a lot of intensity. So you're going to be doing some Sprint, like
work, although not all out, Sprints, except on the final round. I'll explain where all this is going in a
moment but again, you need to select a movement that you can do without
injuring yourself while still performing a move.
At high intensity. So for me, that would be running
for you. It might be something else.
The sugarcane is pretty straightforward and structure. It involves three rounds
after a brief warm-up, of course, so you're going to do
three to five minutes of jogging or jumping jacks or skipping rope something to get your core
body temperature up, so that you're prepared to do the high intensity work. And
then there are only three rounds of high-intensity work. And they go as the following in round 1, you're going to take two minutes so you'll need to set.
A timer for 2 minutes and you're going to go the
maximum distance that you can in that two minutes. So,
run the maximum distance that you can for two minutes or cycle. The maximum distance that you can for two minutes or Versa. Climber the maximum distance that you can for two minutes, whatever you select you're going to do that as far and as fast as you can, for the duration
of two
minutes. So, depending on the movement, and depending on your level of Fitness, that distance might be 400 meters, 600 meters, 800 meters.
Cetera, whatever distance you travel. In that two
minutes, you are going to mark that distance down in your mind, or in your phone, or on a piece of paper, and then you're going to rest two minutes. So, two minutes of work then,
rest 2 minutes.
Then in round 2, you're going to go the same distance that you did in round one and you're going to take as much time as you need to do that distance as fast as you can. So if you went 600,
M in two minutes for round one and round two, you're going to go 600 meters, and it's going to take you however long. It takes you, chances are if you really did the best you could in round one, you are at maximum output for the first two minutes that in round 2. It's going to take you longer than two minutes to
travel that equivalent distance. However, there is the possibility that it will take you less time,
but for most people, it's going to take you more time. So staying with his example of 600 meters,
Two minutes on round one. In round two. You're going to go 600 meters. Let's say it takes you 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
You then are going to mark down how long round to Tokyo. So in this case, the example is 2 minutes and 30
seconds then you're going to rest another
two minutes and then in realm three, you're going to go all out again as
fast and as safely as you can
for the same duration that you did in round 2 and your goal is to go at least as far as you went in round one. And if there's still time left, you're going.
To continue to go all out again, as fast as you safely, can until the entire duration
is completed. So it's
really just three rounds with to rest periods in between round one and round 3. And then I highly recommend the after realm three that you do some sort of dedicated cooldown. So instead of
just flopping on to the bench or the floor of the lon that you walk around slowly until you recover your breathing,
the reason I like the sugar cane as a tool that one implements once every say two to four weeks, as a replacement for ones,
Typical high intensity interval training is several fold. First of all, if you provide the right intensity in
round 1 and round 2 and round 3, it is
sure to elevate your heart rate substantially and in doing so improve your VO2 max which is correlated with all sorts of important metrics related to health, span performance and lifespan. Second of all it gamify as things a little bit. It pits you against yourself in the sense. That if you go out at maximum speed again performing a movement that you can
safely,
Perform at maximum speed in
Round 1. Well, then you have something to compete against in round two and round
three. And that makes the
high intensity interval training. First of all, very intense but also, it makes it kind of fun in a way that lets you forget just how painful the whole thing is the next tool to improve your Fitness is called
exercise snacks. And as the name suggests, this is a fun one and was
suggested by dr. Andy Galpin as a way to either enhance or maintain.
Fitness depending on how your core or foundational fitness
program is going. So when I say core I don't mean your abs I
mean whether or not you're getting your regular cardio and your regular resistance training. If you were to add one or several of these exercise
snacks per week, it can
further improve things, like vo2max
muscular endurance, Etc. I'll talk about the specific snacks that you will be doing in a moment.
However, as dr. Andy Galpin also pointed out, there are times in which we happen to not be following our foundational.
This program either because
work demands or family demands or we're traveling, we're simply not keeping up with our basic routine and under those conditions exercise. Snacks are a terrific way to maintain the fitness that you've already built and developed and you don't lose any ground in a week. Say where you get particularly
busy
now exercise, snacks can take on a variety of different forms but for sake of Simplicity and Clarity today, we're going to divide them into two major categories. The first category, our exercise
That are going to improve or maintain your cardiovascular
fitness, your ability to run or cycle or
row some distance say you know, 12 minutes or longer,
okay. But keep in mind, these exercise snacks are very very brief. They don't require that. You do them for 12 minutes or longer.
What they're going to do is either maintain or enhance the type of endurance that allows you to continue in an activity
for 12 minutes or longer. The second category of exercise.
Snack relates to muscular endurance muscular endurance is
A very important aspect of fitness and even though some people are already training for muscular endurance. It's something that most people are not doing enough training. For muscular endurance is your ability, say, to
maintain a wall set or to maintain a plank or to do the maximum number of push-ups that you can do in one session, the sort of, you know, drop to the floor and give me as many pushups as you possibly can type of thing or as many sit-ups as you can type of thing.
Muscular endurance, translates to a number of other aspects of fitness and it's something that we should all be working on. And again,
Many people just don't
make space for it in their regular
routine. So now we have these two categories of exercise, snacks, one geared toward enhancing or maintaining your cardiovascular fitness as it translates to longer
duration, endurance activity. So 12 minutes or
longer, and then the other category is purely muscular endurance which is essentially some bout of exercise, that's going to be fairly brief anywhere from a minute to two minutes, but certainly less than 12 minutes, okay? So let me give you an example of an exercise snack for enhancing.
Your long-duration endurance, 12 minutes or longer and this is the sort of thing that if you are going to incorporate into your routine and I highly recommend that you do can essentially be done any time with no warm up. A good example of an exercise. Snack of this type would be to suddenly stand up from your desk and to do 100
jumping jacks. Now,
depending on how fit you are
and how fast you do, those Jumping
Jacks and how wide and you know tall you do those jumping
jacks? Meaning you know are you doing these kind of little things where your hands don't actually meet.
Your hand like parting your legs. Just a little bit, or you doing full jumping jacks, we really jumping and, you know, setting your
feet out as wide
as you comfortably and safely can and then bring your hands
together, it could take you anywhere from 30 seconds to 90 seconds, okay? So in the case of jumping jacks, you may end up doing this for 90 seconds, but the point is to Simply
do 100 jumping jacks or
if that takes too long, you can even do
just 25 or 50 jumping jacks.
The point is that it's going to get you moving your muscles. It's going to get your heart.
Rate up, even if you're very, very fit, if you're doing
these fast enough and you're doing them
with proper form, it's going to get your heart rate up, and then you're
done, you can sit back down to your desk or you can continue to walk through the airport. Yes, I've done these in the airport, typically not while walking toward my gate, but at the gate
but occasionally, I'm feeling lethargic or I haven't
had the opportunity to train that day and perhaps I won't get the opportunity to train. So I'll do something like 100 jumping jacks while facing the window. So it feels a little less awkward.
Facing people while you're doing them
and of course, you don't have to do jumping jacks and equally effective. Type of exercise snack is to find a stairwell and to Simply go up that stairwell as fast as you safely, can for 20 to 30 seconds so perhaps just fine. The bottom of a stairwell and go out that stairwell as quickly
as you can and perhaps go down as quickly as you can and just keep
doing that for about 20 to 40 seconds. And then you're
essentially done. You
could also opt to pick some distance away from your car in the parking lot.
Assuming you're not carrying any heavy bags or anything and simply run to your car, so, 20 to 30 seconds of not necessarily all out sprinting, you don't want to injure yourself. Because, again, this is
done without a warm up, these exercise snacks are designed to be inserted into your day and into your week. Essentially at random, you could plan them if you
want. But anytime you feel inspired or perhaps anytime you're feeling like you don't want to do one, you could simply do one of
these exercise snacks
and of course doing jumping jacks
or running to your car
or take.
The
stairs very quickly up and down or just up and then walking down for instance and doing a few jumping jacks.
Things of that. Sort, of course, can take on a near infinite
number of different variations. So if you don't like any of the variations that I just
presented, you can easily come up with something else. Again, the purpose of these exercise snacks
is to get your heart rate
up. It's, of course, to do this while not getting injured and it is entirely compatible with an existing exercise program. It in no way is going to impede.
Need your performance in strength or hypertrophy or other forms of long-form endurance or high intensity interval training, quite to the contrary, everything we know about these exercise snacks is that they
enhance various aspects of your physiology in ways that promote both
recovery and performance
in your other types of exercise and your other types of athletic Endeavors.
So, no reason to think that they are going to be
problematic for your training, but of course don't trip. Don't fall, don't undertake a movement that puts you into a range of motion that has you hurting your back, your knee, or any.
A part of your body, you know, start off slowly and
find something that really works for you. So these are very easy. They take
very little time, they're fun to be honest, and as was discussed in the
conversation with dr. Andy Galpin. They're also very effective. The
second category of exercise, snack are the exercise snacks
that enhance muscular endurance.
So, muscular endurance is the type of endurance that allows you to maintain a fixed position for some period of time, usually somewhere between one and three minutes. But
But these endurance bouts are never going
to last 12 or more minutes unless you are exceptionally evolved in terms of your muscular endurance
abilities. What I'm talking about here, are things like planks wall, sits maximum number of push-ups things of that sort and this is an aspect of Fitness that translates to other aspects of Fitness in a very important way. And again, this was covered in the exercise series with dr. Andy Galpin. I don't want to go into any of the details now because it was all covered
there. It's very
easy to look up.
Because it's time-stamped. But just in brief muscular endurance, allows the build-up of more micro vascular Supply to muscles and connective tissue in a way that allows delivery and removal of more nutrients and
waste products. Now, I
realize to the physios things like nutrients and waste
products as far too broad a category.
But what we're talking about here is the ability to deliver more, fuel and oxygen and to remove waste
products.
Of muscular effort or to be more specific neuromuscular effort. This is a great thing because it can help you
enhance your strength training. Enhance, your hypertrophy training, enhance your long-distance endurance and your middle distance and even your short distance endurance and these exercise snacks for building muscular endurance are exceedingly easy to do and you can even
do them while talking on the phone especially if you're using headphones or if you have your phone on speaker.
A good example of an exercise snack for muscular endurance, would be a 30.
60 second or perhaps longer wall sit.
So remember wall sits wall sits are as the name suggests where you put your feet out
some distance from a wall, you squat down into a seated position, but
there's no chair there and then you maintain that seated position and
that is harder to do over time.
Okay, you could lean back against the wall a little bit harder.
If you wanted to gain some extra support
and continued, but the idea here is that you're going to go not necessarily to muscular failure, but to the point where you
can't continue to sit in that wall, sit position. You could also simply do this
Us as an air squat down to the bottom
position where you're comfortable, and then you don't want to rest down there. Meaning you want to maintain some tension, in your
quadriceps and other muscles of your lower body so that you're actively trying to support yourself in the seated position. But without a seat below, you
that can be done. Again while on a speaker phone conversation that can be done at
random throughout the day you can just decide. Okay, I'm going to do a wall sit now and I'm going to time myself. I'm going to see how long I can do this for or you could decide to do a plank. I've done this while on a
Call. Sorry if it was you that I was talking to but I put the phone on
speaker and just gotten into a plank position and then I'll just have the
conversation in the plank position.
I don't fight to maintain that plank position
past the point where I could continue to have a conversation.
So again, this is a type of exercise that one is trying to incorporate into their daily
routine. If you wanted to dedicate a specific amount of time just to doing these exercise snacks you could but it's far more
reasonable to assume that people will
incorporate these into their daily routine more
regularly if you can incorporate.
It truly into
the other aspects of your routine like work. You do this while watching TV or listening to a podcast
one form of muscular
endurance exercise snack. That's really terrific. And is a bit of a challenge.
That's fun is to just simply see how many
pushups you can do
and we talked about proper push-up form during the episode series with dr. Andy Galpin but here what we're talking about is chest all the way to the ground so it touches the ground. Then pushing up
till your arms are completely
straight. That's one push-up. And then continuing in piston like
Meaning, you're not pausing at the
top and taking a bunch of breaths. You're not going to a plank position in other words,
But continuing to do as many pushups as you can to see whether or not
you can enhance that number over time and in any case just to Simply get your body working to engage the muscles of your chest, your shoulders, your triceps, and your core
etcetera, and to do that every once in awhile. So instead of needing somebody to say drop and give me 20, just see whether or not some point any
point throughout the day can get into a push-up position to your maximum number of push-ups and just mentally know.
That number to yourself again. These exercise snacks serve multiple roles, they're designed to get you moving to get your heart rate going to maintain or enhance, your Fitness and other domains of fitness. And this is very important to not take too much time out of your schedule. In fact, like zone, two cardio, right? Being the type of movement that you're just going to do a lot throughout the week carrying groceries, Etc as we discussed earlier.
These exercise snacks are designed to be incorporated into your daily life. And I must say that having started doing these
After recording the series with dr. Andy Galpin, I've noticed, two things.
First of all, including these exercise
snacks at least once a week and more like three to five times a week for me. So that's one exercise, snack done. Three to five times per week,
has definitely correlated
with improvements in my Fitness, in other, domains of Fitness, strength, hypertrophy long-distance endurance etcetera. Now I've changed a number of other things as well as a consequence of that series with dr. Andy Gallup. And so I can't say for sure that it's the exercise snack.
Is per se that are causing all those positive ships. I have to imagine that it's not just the exercise snacks, but they've become an important part of my routine and that relates to the second point, which is that the
exercise snacks are designed to be fun and
easy. And so I really enjoy doing them so much so that if I don't do one for a couple of days and start to Crave them, a little bit, kind of like the other kind of snack.
The next category of tool to improve your Fitness relates to
breathing or respiration
breathing in respiration, is an enormous Topic in and of itself.
In fact, I did an entire episode on breathing and respiration. And this is a topic that my laboratory works on extensively as it relates to anxiety control, and some other aspects of mental health as well as to physical performance.
For today's discussion, I want to just review a few tools that one can incorporate both into workouts and around workouts that can greatly enhance, Fitness and
Recovery. The
first one is the type of respiration tool that you use between
sets of exercise.
And again, here, we're
we're talking about resistance training but we could just as easily be talking
about rest
between rounds of say, high-intensity
interval training. So for instance between bouts of sprinting on the track or the bike, or the treadmill, or the rower,
a great pattern of breathing to incorporate during rest between sets is something that I've talked about before in other
contexts, which is the physiological side. The
physiological PSI is a deep inhale, through the nose, to maximally or near maximally
inflate your lungs.
And then a second, very brief
inhale, and it's necessarily brief because your lungs are already pretty full to
maximally inflate your lungs. And to make sure that any of the Little sacks will a viola of your lungs that have collapsed during the exercise exertion will re-inflate and then a long, exhale until lungs empty. So I'll demonstrate it right now as I've done many times before but if you haven't seen it or heard it before, it's to inhales followed by an extended exhale and it goes like this.
You'll notice that the inhales were through the nose and the exhale was through the
mouth. That's the ideal way to do it. For a number of reasons. Check out the episode that I did on respiration physiology AK, breathing, if you want more details on, why that
is. But to inhale, through the nose and a long extended exhale
through the mouth, the so-called physiological side not named by me, but rather named by physiologists in the 1930s is, as far as we know, the fastest way
to shift your nervous system from
so-called
Sympathetic drive to more parasympathetic drive
from a state of Greater alertness to a state
of Greater calm. Now, the reason do this between sets of resistance training is that
the more that you can shift yourself from sympathetic
drive to parasympathetic drive, that is from alert to calm. In between sets, the
more energy and focus you can devote to exertion during your work sets. And so one way to do this, that's very convenient and very effective is to consider the last repetition of your set a physiological side.
Which is not to say,
Okay, I want to be very clear which is not to say that you should do the physiological side during your set. That in fact, I recommend you do not do that. But rather
if you're doing six repetitions of a given
exercise and you let's say, fail on the
6th or you do that six repetition and you're just close to failure. Because
again, your works at should be to failure or close to it. Most of the time,
then set down the weight and then you're going to do the next repetition as the physiological sigh meaning you're not going to do the movement. You're going to think of doing a
logical
sigh as the last repetition of every set. Not during the last repetition of the resistance training movement, okay? So the physiological sighs something you do at the beginning of the rest period. Immediately following a set, if you rather think about it that way, because it's more convenient than thinking about is the last rep of a set. Be my guest, whatever works for you,
what you'll quickly find is that if you do a
physiological side, right after completing your last
repetition, you'll calm down much more quickly. Your heart rate
will come down more quickly and you'll
recover more completely in whatever
designated
. You've allowed yourself whether or not it's 30 seconds which would be very short frankly
or it's a five-minute period of
rest. Between sets if you do
one truly just one physiological
side, the beginning of the rest period you are going to effectively shift, your nervous system in the direction you want it to go during those rest periods. And of course if you're training hard during your work sets you run
zero risk whatsoever
of feeling so calm that you don't feel motivated to do your next set. I promise you that it will allow you to
relax more at the beginning of the rest period.
Then you ordinarily would to shift into
a state of rest. You know, their differing opinions about whether or not you should walk around or stay still during your rest periods. I like to walk
around a bit and stay standing.
I'm not one of these people that kind of collapses into a c-shape. On the bench in between sets I like to stand up and you know breed normally walk around during a little water Etc.
In any case,
doing a physiological side the beginning of each rest interval between work sets of
resistance training
is a very effective way to enhance your focus and your
Output during your work sets. Now, the
last respiration tool to improve your Fitness is again, a tool glean from the discussion
with dr. Andy Galpin. And that's to include a three to
five minute period at the end of
every single workout. So it doesn't matter if it's high intensity, interval training, or its resistance training, or it's a long run of some sort
at the end of every workout to take three to five minutes. So you'll want to set a timer and to do some form of
parasympathetic that is calming promoting.
Breathing, in order to shift your nervous system
from a state of heightened alertness, and
output into a state of recovery, because as you all well know by
now you get fitter not during your
workouts. But rather after your workouts, in between workouts,
so you stimulate the adaptation during a workout, but you get the adaptation, you get the
actual Improvement in between workouts and a
common mistake that many people make. And I made this mistake for years was to finish a great workout and then you're texting on
Phone or you're talking on the phone, you're driving home. It's certainly
not as intense as the workout that you just did. Maybe you're even feeling really calm from a nice long jog or you had a particularly good workout that day and you're feeling really happy. So you're enjoying the high so to
speak. Well, when you do three to
five minutes of what's often called down-regulation breathing, after a workout, it allows you to recover and, to induce the adaptation that you've been after the one that you actually train for much more quickly. I
can't tell you how many people I know who start to.
Incorporate this into their workouts, find that they recover far better from their workouts, which might seem a little bit surprising. Why would it be that? Just three to
five minutes of some activity would enhance recovery to such a great degree and that's because typically
people don't bookend their workouts, they
finish their workouts. And of course, they're not continuing to lift weights
or run, but they move about
their day and their life, even if it's preparing a meal in a way that the level of stress and therefore stress hormones, things like cortisol, adrenaline things that by the way are
Want to elevate during a workout
things, like inflammatory markers, which by the way, are great. To enhance during a workout, that actually happens during a workout. You have a massive increase in inflammatory markers which might seem bad.
But all of those things are enhancing
the adaptation that you're seeking. But as soon as those workouts in, you want to shift into recovery mode and this 3 to 5 minutes of down regulation. Breathing is a terrific way to do that. There are a
couple different patterns of breathing that will
work best
but all of them
emphasized,
Exhales. Okay, I want to repeat that all of them emphasize exhale,
so for instance, you could just choose slow, deliberate breathing.
How does that emphasize
exhales? Well, ordinarily, when we breathe, we inhale actively and we exhale passively. Whenever we deliberately breathe more slowly, we are actively
exhaling. All right. So,
active exhales, really promote the
calming response in brain and body. The other thing you could do,
which many people are now doing is
to do a repeat.
Round of physiological size. So the double inhale, through the nose long, exhale, through the mouth, but repeated for say three minutes, that's another version.
The other thing you could do is simply to notice your exhales and to emphasize your Excel to make them longer and more vigorous than your inhales. Now, you don't want to turn this into a breath work session where you're you know, you're doing, you know pranayama or Kundalini breathing or something of that
sort. The idea is to calm
down. So anytime you're extending your
exhale,
Cause you're actively exhaling. You're trying to slow your breathing down. Overall, you're going to shift yourself in the right direction. So
rather than complicate this type of tool, the best thing you can do is just focus on those exhales, slow your breathing overall, use physiological size if you want or simply sit in your vehicle. Or if you
have to drive home while doing this extended, exhale type of down-regulation, ideally, you would take a couple of minutes and just shift your whole system by not driving, you know, closing your eyes and just sitting in your car.
Stationary, of course. Don't drive with your eyes closed or bike with your eyes
closed just simply calm down.
Extend your exhales and shift from the workout to the recovery mode, which is where the progress is going to arrive.
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Again, that's inside tracker.com huberman to get 20% off the next tools to improve your Fitness. Our psychological tools and they're really geared toward enhancing your focus during your workout and separating or segmenting your workouts.
It's from the other parts of
your day. Now, of
course, workouts are
naturally segmented from the other parts of your day. Unless you're running around all day long, you're lifting weights or other heavy objects all day long, but one of them were attractive tools that was presented during the series with dr. Galpin that I adopted and found to be really effective. Is this concept of the line?
The line is this concept that you have a physical location say at the
entrance to a gym or at the start of your run, or your bike or
It's around the stationary exercise device that you use
for which once you cross that line, you
are all about business, okay? You're not socializing or at least not too much. You don't want to be rude to people, but you're really focused on your work out. So this is especially
effective on days when your little bit distracted or you didn't sleep that well, the night before or maybe you got something going on in
mind or you're in an argument or you're excited about something else. But if you care about your Fitness which I hope everyone does
and your gold ring.
Any workout is to stimulate a
particular type of physiological, adaptation strength hypertrophy, long-distance endurance, Etc.
And you also don't want to get
injured so that you can continue to train for your entire life. As regularly as possible. The concept of the line is fantastic because what it
does is it forces you to compartmentalize the portion of your life that comes before the workout and after the workout and also
to really enjoy your workouts.
This is something that's not often discussed but
Nowadays with the Advent of smartphones, there's a lot of
infiltration of other types of
communication and
information while one is supposed to be exercising. And so our life has become far less compartmentalized than it used to be before the Advent of smartphones. Now of course smartphones are wonderful. They provide all sorts of wonderful tools and benefits and of course I use one.
And I'll talk about how to incorporate the smartphone and very
specific way to enhance your workouts in just a moment.
But the idea of a line is you pick a location. It can change
each workout but ideally it would
It'd be at the threshold of where the physical location to the workout begins, and once you cross that line, you are all business, you are taking care of business,
which is not to say that you can't enjoy your workouts. In
fact, you absolutely should one of the best pieces of advice that I ever got about Fitness was given to me when I was a teenager and I started lifting weights and the person who was teaching me how to do
that said, one of the best things that you can
do and you absolutely should do for your
Fitness. Now, and forever is to learn
To enjoy training hard and that really stuck with me, I really do enjoy training hard but that was
something that I learned how to do
over time, I took on the mentality that I'm here by choice. I'm here for my own good and my own Fitness to enhance my life. So I'm going to enjoy training hard. I'm going to enjoy training effectively and of course there are days when I trained a little less hard where I back off quite a bit even take rest periods of a week. Every once in a while, every, you know, say 12 to 16 weeks, I'll take a week off and just do some, you know, activities like hiking and
of that sort. I talked to all about extended layoffs, meaning a layoff of more than 2 days during the episode that I did by myself, which is the optimal Fitness protocols episode.
But in any case learning to train hard and enjoy training
hard and really making the work out something that is separate from the rest of your life, is one of the most gratifying things that you can do to enhance your overall
Fitness because it really teaches you. How to designate your mind and your
body toward this one, specific set of goals while you are there and to really
Enjoy the process because Fitness can be a truly enjoyable process. Even when you were exerting yourself especially hard and for you masochists out there it can be especially because you're training hard that it feels so good.
In any event, the key is to set some sort of
boundary and know that when you cross into that boundary your training and when you cross out of that boundary you're done training which also lends itself to more adequate recovery and the decompression type breathing exercises that we talked about before. I'm not going to tell you whether or not you need to do.
The down regulation breathing at the end of your workout within the line, or after you cross the line that's up to you. I don't think one needs to get that specific.
Now another tool that's
wonderfully effective, not just for your workouts, but for all areas of your life is
if you are going to bring a smartphone to your
workouts to set some boundaries around, what you're going to listen to and do what that smartphone during your workouts. I see people texting, I see people doing selfies, I see people having phone calls, I see.
I presume listening to
music or podcasts. Look,
I am not the smartphone police nor are you, and everyone has a right to use their smartphone in the way that they choose is best for them in order to distract themselves or Focus themselves or enrich their life. Look. It's a free world course or for some than for others, but you can do what you want with your smartphone.
However, if your goal is to improve your Fitness, one of the more
powerful things you can do with your smartphone, is to decide before you cross the line into your workout.
Out
what you're going to listen to
or do with that phone or
not. So, for me, I like to designate a playlist of
music for that particular workout, and then I just stick to that playlist. I might repeat songs that I like a lot or someone talks to me while the music's playing, I might go back and restart a song. If they distracted me, that sort of thing. Although I do my best to not get into too much Social chitchat during workouts, but I'm friendly. And you know, it's nice. When people come over and say hello, I sometimes work out with other people, which case I don't use headphones. I don't use a smartphone
but
Setting a playlist or to designating a
podcast or to
designating an audiobook, or to whatever it is that you're going to listen to, to really decide what that's
going to be before you do your work
out. The reason I say this is
that I observe a lot of people and frankly have I've observed myself under conditions where I'm suddenly in a text communication. Or I'm bouncing between albums or between podcasts or between whatever it is on the phone to
the point where rest intervals aren't being
Controlled. Well to the point
where Focus during sets becomes harder to achieve at the beginning of a set because in between sets, I was focused on a conversation, not on
training. I'm a big believer in making your
exercise fun, making it accessible, meaning not so expensive or geographically difficult to achieve that. You don't do it or that it starts to interfere with other areas of life. This is really important. You want Fitness to be blended with the rest of your life
but you don't want it so blended with the rest of your life. That the rest of your life
starts to impede your efforts or
This happens quite often for a lot of people that work out, start to take an hour and a half two hours when they could easily be completed in 45 minutes to an hour. If you were just more efficient with your time and of course
you don't need me to tell you this, but smartphones can be one of the major
bleeds on our our focus and efficiency. In fact, it can cause you to Hemorrhage, focus and efficiency. So what I'm
suggesting here is not throwing away your
smartphone. Although some people do benefit from just leaving it in the car or at home when they are training. But rather to
designate
Cass books, music playlist for that particular
workout and to just stick to those for the duration of your workout and once you cross into the line, that's what you're listening to
an only that or
nothing. And of course, once you cross back over the line, as you finish your workout, you can decide to continue to listen to the podcast or continue to listen to the audiobook or to the music that's up to you. Although I highly recommend that you do incorporate that down-regulation period of three to five minutes, minimum the last category of tools to improve your Fitness come from.
Discussions about nutrition and supplementation
and Recovery in the series with dr. Andy Galpin.
Now, the list of tools I'm about to describe is
not exhaustive, meaning, it doesn't even begin to come close to the total number of tools that one could glean from the discussion about nutrition and supplementation that I had with dr. Andy Galpin on this podcast
but they are the major ones that are definitely worth knowing and those include supplementing
with omega-3 fatty acids. Now, Omega 3 fatty acids are found of course in foods
Things like fatty fish and krill of all things certain forms of algae
etcetera, but most people
do not get enough of so-called EPA form of Omega-3s. And for that
reason, I and many other people choose to supplement with a minimum of 1 gram per day. And in some cases as high as
two grams per day of Omega-3s in supplement form.
So typically when we get to one to two grams of EPA by supplementing
their nutrition their diet, that is
with fish oil capsules or liquid fish oil there are many
Sources of these that was discussed in an episode that I did with dr. Rhonda Patrick,
I find that it's most cost-efficient
to get that one to two grams of epa's
from liquid fish oil. Despite what you might see on the internet, I don't have any relationship whatsoever to a liquid fish
oil company. You just want to make sure that you go with a
reputable brand. I like the ones that are flavored with lemon
so that it offsets the taste of fish oil and I'll take a tablespoon or two of that per day
and if I'm traveling and even if
I'm not, I
Will often use fish oil, capsules and there are a variety of different sources of those as well. Getting sufficient amounts of Omega-3 has been shown to be important for mood, okay? So as a way to offset depression, but also for enhancing overall mood, that probably relates to the Omega-3s effect on
neurotransmission, not
just for neuromodulators like serotonin and dopamine. But for all
neurotransmission and neurotransmission, of
course is essential for neural, muscular performance,
and the Omega-3s have been
implicated in reducing the inflammation.
Response, cardiovascular, health, Etc. I realized that there
is some debate about Omega-3s, but when I look at the bulk of literature about the Omega-3s, it's very clear to me that getting one
to two grams of EPA form of a mega three per day is the right thing for me to do and many others, find that as
well, the second tool to enhance your Fitness under this category of nutrition
and supplementation is
creatine. Now again, creatine is
not just found in supplement form. It's also found of course in Foods in particular, red meat.
However, the
The amount of red meat that one would
have to eat in order to get the amount of
creatine, that one would start to see a real performance.
Enhancing effect is just far too high. You'd be ingesting far too much of other things in red meat that you wouldn't want that much of.
And for that reason, I and many other people will take creatine
daily. We now know. There's no need to so-called load creatine in the old days as it were so old days, by the way, meaning mid 90s and 2000's. We were all told that we had to load creatine. We have to take high-dose creatine for 45 days.
And then you could back off to a maintenance dose. Now, it's very clear. You can just take a daily dose of creatine
and that it really doesn't matter. When
you take that creatine, you could take it post workout, as many people do, you can take it pre-workout, it really doesn't seem to matter. I happen to take it post-workout just as a matter of habit. But again, you can take it any time of day.
Now, the point I want to make
about creatine is one that's a bit different than the other discussions out there. I have no issue with the majority of what's discussed about creatine out there, for instance,
that creatine monohydrate is the most effective form.
Fortunately.
Creatine monohydrate is also the least expensive form of creatine that sold out there. I see
no evidence whatsoever that the
other forms of creatine are superior to creatine monohydrate. But what you'll
usually hear is that taking 5 grams of creatine
monohydrate per day, is ideal
for everybody. And that advice is
simply not well informed by the scientific literature if you are a larger person. So for instance, I weigh 100 kg. So that's about 220
pounds. Well, it turns out if you look at the literature on Creatine and
Like
performance. And if you look at the literature on Creatine and
cognitive performance, because
some of you already know, creatine is a fuel
or the phosphocreatine system is a fuel system
for the brain as well. And if you look at the studies on Creatine, they almost always gauge the amount of creatine to give an individual
based on their body weight.
So you don't have to get really specific about this, but if you weigh say, 185 pounds to 250 pounds, you can get away.
And probably should be taking
10 grams or so of creatine per day, which is what I do. Whereas, if you weigh less than that, 5 grams or maybe even three grams of sufficient. Now, I discussed this with dr. Andy Galpin during that
series. And one of the things that I've started to do
since the closure of that series is to take more creatine per day. So now I'm taking 10, sometimes, even as much as 15 grams per day of creatine, again, this is powdered
creatine monohydrate, my stomach tolerates. It very well. But frankly, I don't tend to get
stomach aches or gastric.
Dress from pretty much anything, unless it's, you know, some form
of food poisoning, which is exceedingly rare for me. So
some people out there, find that creatine really disrupts their gut and they need to take it with
food or they really need to
slowly increase the amount of creatine that they're taking each day. I find that I can put 10 even 15 grams of creatine into a, you know,
whey protein,
shake or into some water with a little bit of lemon juice, just to make it taste a little less chalky, drink that, and I don't have any gastric distress from
that. So you'll need to find what works for you. But the point here,
Here is, if you're going to take creatine, you don't just want to quote unquote.
Take creatine, you know, one scoop per day, you really want to adjust the amount of creatine that you're ingesting, according to your body weight and
I would give you a very specific formula of X grams of creatine per kilogram or pound of body weight. But believe it or not, no such specific recommendation, has ever been
published in the scientific literature. At least I couldn't find it in a way that's consistent with all the other papers, meaning, you see a lot of variation. So, what I'm talking about here is, if you weigh
In
85 pounds or so. Okay, plus, or minus £5 out to about 250 pounds, 10 to 15 grams of creatine per day is probably more appropriate for you than is five grams. Meaning it's going to be more effective for enhancing physical performance and perhaps again, perhaps even cognitive performance as well.
And if you're somebody who weighs 180
pounds down to say, 130 pounds, 5, grams of creatine, per day is probably sufficient.
The point here is, if you are taking
creatine again, not everyone has to take creatine there.
No law that says that you have to take creatine, some people don't like it. I know some people fear, it's going to make their hair fall out. We already talked about that in previous episodes and the lack of data to support that idea. But I realize some people
steer away from creatine, for
whatever reason. But if you decide that taking creatine is
right for you adjust the total amount of creatine that you take according to your body weight. The next supplementation based tool for enhancing your Fitness, is it rhodiola rosea. Now, this very esoteric sounding supplement is one that I learned about both from doctor.
In Norton when he was a
guest on this podcast expert in
nutrition and frankly training
as it relates to resistance training
and from dr. Andy Galpin. Rhodiola rosea is a supplement that's gaining increasing attention because it is what's called a
cortisol
modulator. It does not necessarily suppress cortisol, it does not
increase cortisol. It's a cortisol modulator and frankly, the mechanism
by which rhodiola rosea. Modulates cortisol is still under
investigation. I hope to do a nap.
Episode about it in the future, at least make it part of an episode because the
hypothesized mechanism that starting to emerge is really
interesting as it relates to neurons in the brain
that control the stress response
and glands in the body. Like the adrenals that control the stress response and that secrete cortisol, regardless, there's a growing body of
research that it has explored rhodiola rosea. Supplementation, n ones, subjective perception of
fatigue or output during high intensity training. A
Kinds both resistance training, as well as running and endurance type training. So
I started taking rhodiola rosea about six months ago, in response to conversations that I had again with
dr. Lee Norton and with dr. Andy Galpin.
And it's a supplement that I take before high intensity workouts, so I don't take it before
run because frankly, my runs either very long and slow, or they're very
brief like a high-intensity interval training session and I find those
to be pretty easy to recover from even though they are very
Be intense. I
might take a rhodiola rosea supplement
before doing a
30-minute, he'll run. That's very intense. But typically I only take it about 10 to 15 minutes before any sort of
high-intensity resistance training session in particular, my leg
day, which falls
on day, two of my exercise protocol or
the Torso day or the small body parts day. Again
here, I'm referencing the way that
I trained across the week and you can find
that training protocol as a downloadable completely zero cost PDF if you like
But I realize other people are using different body parts, splits and different combinations of resistance, training and endurance training.
The reason I mentioned rhodiola rosea and this episode is that I realized that while some people might not yet be supplementing, Omega-3s. They might not be supplementing creatine. There are many of you who are already doing those things and you're looking for additional tools to give you an edge. So again the rhodiola rosea would not fall into the category
of foundational supplements. Certainly get your nutrition right, get your sleep right, get your sunlight all the
Essex first, please before, even thinking about any supplements.
However, once you get into the category of supplements that can enhance Fitness rhodiola rosea, does seem to have some good research to support it in the context of lots of different forms
of high-intensity exercise. Now,
I can't tell you whether or not it's purely subjective or whether or not objective and subjective. But my experience has been that when I take rhodiola Isaiah, I definitely notice that I can
exert myself harder
without feeling like I'm bringing myself.
To the brink of fatigue either during the exertion or afterwards. In other
words, I feel like I can do more work without feeling so exhausted. And I feel as if I'm recovering from my workouts, more
quickly, in particular, across the day after my workout.
In fact, if I had to cite one specific subject of effect that I've
experienced from taking rhodiola rosea before very high intensity workouts, is that prior to taking
it, I would often find that three or four hours after the workout. Having
Eating a good meal, taking a shower at cetera
and I was tired. I have a real dip in energy but now I
notice I have a lot of
energy throughout the day even after these very high intensity sessions in the early part of the day and frankly I haven't changed anything else about my supplementation or my nutrition at least, nothing major.
So I personally, am going to continue to take rhodiola rosea before these high intensity workout. So for me, that's
about two or three times per week. However, if I
forgot to take rhodiola rosea before workout, I
have no reason to think that that workout would go much.
Worse. This is a supplement as designed to sort of, give you an edge to be able
to exert more focus and intensity during your workouts
with less perceived exertion and to enhance your recovery.
The typical dosage of rhodiola rosea that you'll find in most supplements is 100 to 200 milligrams. And of course, any time you're going to take a new supplement,
you would be wise to figure out the lowest effective dose from that supplement, that's just logic, right? Why spend more money, taking more of something that you don't need more of if you could get away with.
Taking less of it and it's just as effective, maybe even more
effective. So I typically will take 100 to 200 milligrams of rhodiola rosea about 10 to 20 minutes
before a workout. However, I've taken as little as 100 mg on a consistent basis. And frankly, I don't really experience much difference whether I take 100 mg, right? Take 200 mg before workout. So lately, I've just defaulted to taking 100 mg of rhodiola rosea before any high intensity workout.
Now, the final tool that I want to review for improving your Fitness, comes from the
Gauri
of nutrition done. Lots of episodes about nutrition already on this podcast. We've done episodes about intermittent fasting. I did a
long interview episode with dr. Lane Norton, where we
discussed all the ins and outs of nutrition as it relates to Fat Loss muscle, gain
Fitness in general lifestyle in general. So check out that episode where you will learn his
philosophy on nutrition. Which frankly is the one that I largely, subscribe to it. Of course obeys the laws of thermodynamics calories in, calories out.
Being fundamentally important, but also gets into all sorts of details about which sources of protein are most effective in bioavailable. How much protein you can
incorporate into your muscles after training, Etc. All of
that is included in that
episode, with that said, the series on exercise with dr. Andy Galpin also included an episode on nutrition and
while having the discussion for that episode and then listening to that episode again,
I realized that while certainly I've gotten a number of things right about my
nutrition across the years
A few areas where I could probably do better
without much effort in ways that could really enhance my fitness. And the
thing that I'm referring to is that for me, my first meal of the day land somewhere around,
11 a.m. maybe 12:00 noon, sometimes, I'll eat an earlier breakfast, but most
typically I hydrate and caffeinate and train in the morning. And then
I eat sometime around 11:00 or 12:00.
And then I eat my last meal of the day sometime around 8:30 or 9
and as some of you already know I tend to organize my meals such that meals during the early part of the day tend to lean more toward protein
and fibrous carbohydrates. So things like you know, meat and salad or chicken and salad fish and salad and maybe a little bit of starch
and the meals that I eat later in the day tend to
be more starch focused and more vegetable. Focus of things like pasta rice, Etc, later in the day because it helps me sleep. And the
picture of all that is really about energy and focus. I find I can focus a bit better and I have more energy throughout
the day when I have
my first meal at around 11 or 12. And I keep the total amount of carbohydrates that I ingest during the day moderate, not low, but moderate. Now, there is an exception to that, which is, if I do a high-intensity resistance, training session, early in the morning, say, train, legs, or train torso, or even small body parts early in the morning, then I make sure to incorporate more starchy carbohydrates and some fruit, some simple sugars as well.
To the first meal of the day so that I can replenish the glycogen that I depleted during those high, intensity resistance training sessions. However,
after talking to dr. Andy Galpin. I realized that. I really shouldn't worry about her. Be afraid
of eating something before training, if I'm really hungry in the morning.
So, what I'm referring to here
are the times in which I wake up, and I want to train, but I personally like to train, fasted, and caffeinated. Okay. Yes. I do recommend that people delay their caffeine intake.
120 minutes after
waking, if and only, if you have
trouble with an afternoon crash, you know, real fatigue in the afternoon then it makes sense to delay. Your caffeine 90 to 120 minutes after waking, however, the exception to that, is that if I'm going
to train early in the day, I do ingest
water to hydrate as well as electrolytes and caffeine prior to training. And sometimes that means I'm drinking caffeine within 30 minutes or 60 Minutes of waking tried to be clear about this in previous episodes. But I think a number of people have
Come to think that I always
delay, my caffeine intake, 90 to 120 minutes after waking that, simply not the case. If I'm going to train in particular, if I'm going to do high-intensity resistance
training or a long run, I
will ingest caffeine sooner than 90 to 120 minutes after waking and in addition to that, yes, I tend to eat my first meal around 11 a.m. maybe 12:00 noon, but if I wake up and I'm very hungry, I will eat a small meal that includes typically some protein, and some fat. So some Brazil nuts, maybe a couple scoops of whey protein.
Would be typical for me or maybe
even a little bit of oatmeal. Some whey protein, not a lot
of food in my gut, but after talking to dr. Andy Galpin. What I learned was for some people training fasted feels best. I would consider myself one of those people. You may be somebody in that category as well. Or
you might be somebody who really feels as if you run best, you resistant strain best when you've eaten. Say,
90 minutes or a couple hours before you do that,
there are basically no specific rules.
It relates to whether or not you train fasted or train fed except what you can handle in terms of gastric distress. So you'll want to make food choices according to that and try and avoid, of course, gastric distress. But basically the change that I've made is,
if I wake up and I'm hungry, I'll eat a
small meal or if I want to work out in the afternoon or I have to work out in the afternoon and I have lunch at say 12 or 12:30 or 11 a.m. and the only
opportunity that I have to train is 1 p.m. or even 12:30
I will go ahead and train and that's a new thing for me. Typically, I tried to keep my meals at least three to
four hours prior to any training bout and of course if you're sleeping all night, you're not eating. And then if you wake up and you don't eat and you train in the morning, that certainly longer than three or four hours unless you're sleeping. Very, very little frankly.
So essentially what I'm saying is figure out what
works best for you. Do you prefer to train fasted or fed for some of you you might prefer fasted before
cardio and fed before resistance training
Some of you it might be fasted is always best again. I put myself in that category for some of you it might be fed is always best again, this is highly individual and that's another point that I'm trying to make here which is
Doctor Galpin really impressed, upon me. That there is no hard and fast rule
about training fasted or
fed. And this is the second point that having some flexibility in whether or
not you can train fasted or fed allows you to incorporate your Fitness training sessions, more readily into a shifting schedule and that's
A really overarching theme of everything we've been discussing today, which is yes, it's
wonderful and important to have a Core Fitness program. Something that
you're really striving to do each and every week. And for me, that's three sessions of cardio, three resistance training sessions and a day where i'm doing thermal stress training which is just fancy language for deliberate cold and delivery heat exposure. However, real life happens travel work
illness
family. All the sorts of things that can impinge on an exercise schedule and make it less likely.
Leave that one would complete their workouts.
So today we've been discussing
tools to improve your Fitness, which are brief easy to
incorporate scientifically supported n that are shown to improve the various sorts of exercise adaptations and Recovery
that will allow you to get the most progress from your
schedule. So while the tools that we discussed today, relate to breathing, they relate to nutrition, they relate to supplementation. They relate to specific set and rep
patterns, and cadences and rest periods, Etc. All of those
Specific recommendations
are within a larger
container that I hope has become clear which is the best tools to improve your Fitness are the tools that of course, are going to be effective
in improving your cardiovascular and strength and
hypertrophy training, Etc. Whatever it is that your goals are
but also tools that are going to make it easier and
more likely that you are going to engage in your fitness program with enthusiasm with effort and with focus.
And as, with any episode of this podcast, I covered a lot
of information.
Sharon. And there are a lot of different tools that one could incorporate
by. No means you need to incorporate
them all. Although if you choose to, that's
wonderful, just even incorporating one or two of them, say incorporating this notion of the
line and the exercise snacks
or adjusting your level of flexibility as to whether or not you train fasted or fed and the line or trying a 12-week cycle of purely training for
strength when you do your resistance training
but whether or not you pick one tool, or all the tools or somewhere in between the key thing is to
actually Implement them.
And I
like to think that during today's discussion provided a number of tools. Again, largely gleaned from the
episode series of doctor and he opens.
And again, if you haven't seen that series
that's Linked In the show. No, captions. Those episodes are long. There are six of them
but they are a wealth of
information of every aspect of Fitness. During today's episode. We're really just talking about the things that you can and I do believe
should bring to your existing fitness program that
can really make a positive difference without a lot of effort.
Thank you for joining me for today's
discussion. All
Tools to improve your Fitness. If
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