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 Fitness Fitness. Of course, is vitally important for cardiovascular, health for strength, for endurance, for life, span for health span. I can't think of anyone out there that wouldn't want to have healthy hormonal
function healthy, cardiovascular function,
Live a long time and to feel vital that is to have a long Health span as well as a long lifespan Fitness and
fitness Protocols are tremendously powerful for developing all of that. However, despite there being an enormous amount of
information out there on the
internet and in books and elsewhere, it can be a bit overwhelming. So today's episode is really designed to synthesize
science-based tools that we've covered on the
podcast, some with expert guests. Like dr. Andy Galpin, or dr. Peter. A Tia, or
Renowned movement, specialist Ido portal, or physiotherapist and strength, and conditioning Coach, Jeff cavaliere we've had all of them on its guest on the podcast and each and every one of them, provided a wealth of knowledge. In terms of the various things that you can do to optimize very specific or
multiple aspects of Fitness.
Today, we're going to do something a little bit different than usual. Typically on the huberman Lab podcast, I
offer mechanism upfront or first and then we talked about protocols that you can use that really lean on those signs and signs.
Based mechanisms.
Today, I'm going to describe a specific protocol that serves as a general template that anyone. In fact, everyone can use in order to
maximize all aspects of Fitness, so that includes endurance, strength flexibility, hypertrophy
aesthetic, changes Etc. However, this General framework can also be modified that is customized to your particular needs. So, if you're somebody who really wants to build more strength or bigger muscles, you
can change the protocol and the overall program according
To that and I'll talk about very specific ways to do that
or if you're somebody who really just
wants to maintain strength, but you want to build endurance will talk about
that. And of course, we will cover real life issues. Such as should you train? If you are sleep deprived, what about food? When should you eat? What if you haven't eaten in your hungry? Should you still train etcetera, Etc. We're going to cover all of that. Again, in the context of this, what I would call foundational template of Fitness. This foundational, template of Fitness is something that I
personally use. In fact, I've used it for over 3.
Kids aren't believe that, I'm that old but I just recently turned
47 and I still use this basic
protocol or template across the week and modify it
according to what my particular goals are that year that month even that day because I like you live in the real world and sometimes I've been traveling or
I miss a workout. Yes, it does happen or life isn't organized in. Exactly. The way that I need to in order to have everything go according
to the protocol that's on paper. So we're going to discuss real world issues and had
To work with the
real-world issues in order to get the most out of your
fitness program. And again by the end of today's program I can assure you, you will have a template protocol that you can build up from build-out change in modify and that will really serve your fitness goals according to the science and what peer-reviewed studies
and the experts that appeared on this podcast and other podcasts really tell us is best and optimal for our fitness.
I'm pleased to announce that the huberman Lab podcast has now launched a premium channel. I want to be very clear that the
Women live podcast, will continue to be released every Monday at zero cost to Consumer and there will be no change in the
format of these
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Available to premium subscribers such as transcripts and short videos of new tools and unique, tools for mental health, physical,
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Go to supporting the regular
huberman Lab podcast. Again, that's huberman
labs.com. / premium, before we dive into today's content about Fitness and fitness. Protocols want to tell you about a brand new study that is very exciting and frankly very unusual. This is a study that was published out of the University of Houston examining a what I would
call a micro exercise or a micro movement is a
very small movement of a very small portion of your body. In fact, just
1% of your musculature
Sure that when
it's performed continuously, while seated has least what they report are very
dramatic positive changes in terms of blood sugar utilization and Metabolism. So the title of this study is a
potent physiological method to magnify and sustain Soleus oxidative metabolism, improves glucose and lipid regulation this study was published in I science. And as I mentioned earlier, it is getting a lot of attention and it's very unusual.
Without going into all the details of this study, let me just briefly give you a little bit of the background. First of all, you have a muscle called the Soleus the soleus muscle is a more or less wide flat muscle that sits beneath what most people think of as their
calf. Although it's part of the calf muscle. The other portion the calf is called the gastrocnemius, the Soleus, it's below that. Now,
the soleus muscle is a unique muscle because it's largely slow twitch muscle fibers. It's designed to be used
continuously over and over again for stabilizing your body when you're standing up.
Right for
walking, this is a muscle that's designed to
contract over and over and over again. In fact, you could walk all day on this muscle and most likely it would not get sore, do you probably done that? And it did not get sore in contrast a muscle, like your bicep or your tricep. If I were to,
have you perform hundreds or thousands of repetitions, even with a very light weight, one pound weight, or two-pound weight eventually, it would fatigue. You would feel it sort of a burn their, it's a very unusual set of muscles.
To use repeatedly, but the
Soleus is an unusual muscle in that, it really is designed to be used continuously. Now, this study was focused on how people who sit
a lot of the day and don't have the opportunity for a lot of physical movement, or maybe who don't, even exercise, it
all can improve their metabolism and glucose utilization without going into a deep dive about glucose
utilization. Because we've done the Deep dive on this podcast episodes such as metabolism, Etc, you can look those up. But he ruined lab.com, they're all time stamped and
available there.
Any time you eat, your blood sugar, goes up to some extent, so your blood glucose as it's called, goes up to some extent and then insulin is a hormone that's used to essentially chaperone and sequester and
use that blood glucose or is
basically the idea is you don't want blood glucose to go to high. Hyperinsulinemia is something associated with blood glucose.
That's too high because insulin goes up to essentially match the level of blood glucose. You do also don't want to be hypoglycemic, you don't want to have blood sugar. That's too low and insulin is involved in both regulators.
In Peaks and troughs in blood sugar blood glucose. So we can basically say and this is very
simple but we can basically say that you don't want blood glucose to be elevated too much or for too
long, that's not good. In fact people who have diabetes because they don't make insulin people have type 1 diabetes do not make insulin at
all. Their blood glucose has is
so high that they actually have to take insulin in order to regulate otherwise their blood glucose can go so high that it can damage cells and damaged organs, that can even kill people
people
Have type 2 diabetes are so called insulin insensitive, they make
insulin but the receptors to insulin are not sensitive
to it. And so they make more insulin than normally would be
made and blood glucose isn't regulated properly, etc, etc.
The take-home message about blood glucose is that you want your blood glucose levels to go up when you eat but not too high and you don't want them to
stay elevated for too long.
This study looked at how people who are largely sedentary or at least sitting can increase the utilization, the clearance of glucose from the
Bloodstream after eating
and they also looked at
overall metabolism for people
get this that were using just that one percent of muscle the Soleus by doing what they call a Soleus push-up. So the sole is push-up can be described very simply as if you're sitting down with your knee
bent at an approximately right angle
like a square corner and pushing up or I should say lifting your heel while pushing down on your toe and Contracting. The calf muscle as it were and then lower.
During the
heel and then lifting the heel again lowering the heel, lifting the heel
again. Each one of those is what they call a Soleus push up. This study had people continuously due solely as push-ups and they looked at things
like blood glucose utilization, they looked at metabolism. And so on. Now, a
couple of important things about this study before I tell you what they discovered, which was frankly,
pretty miraculous almost hard to believe. And yet, I believe the data, the data look to be collected, quite quite well.
And there are a lot of Statistics in the study, looks to be quite thorough.
First of all, they use an equal number of male and female subjects, there were wide range of body, mass, indices, okay, so this wasn't just super fit people or people that were purely sedentary and not fit. The used a wide variety of Ages time of day people who tended to walk a lot or not. Walk a lot. They measured changes in metabolism and blood glucose utilization and people that had done these Soleus
push-ups while seated in the
laboratory and I must say they had them do these. So
always push ups for quite a long while continuously so they have them do it for as long as 270 minutes
total throughout the day. So if you divide that that's four and a half hours, you might say well four and a half hours of lifting the heel and putting the heel down lifting the heel putting the heel down. That's a lot but they didn't
always do it
continuously. They had some breaks in
there. So this is the sort of thing that you could imagine you or other people could do while seated,
while doing zooms or while on calls or maybe even while eating doing that sort of thing. Although
I'm not suggesting that you constantly be focusing on solely as push ups throughout your life. The point
is that people who did the Soleus push-ups experienced
dramatic improvements in blood sugar regulation and in metabolism despite the fact that the Soleus is just
one percent of the total musculature. So here I'm going to read from the abstract about what they found. People who did these Soleus push-ups, despite being a tiny muscle and using very little
local energy. In fact, they measured muscle
Glycogen that burn or essentially the utilization of fuel within the muscle. And there was
very little utilization of fuel
within the Soleus itself and that's because the sole is has this unique property of needing to basically keep you going all day. Walking all day or moving all day.
What they saw was a large
magnitude for
example, 52 percent less
postprandial that's after a
meal glucose Excursion, so 52 percent less increase in blood glucose.
And 60%, 60 less hyperinsulinemia, so reduced levels of insulin. They also miraculously observed that despite this being again at a small muscle 1% of the total muscle
mass. So very small oxidative use. They
saw big improvements in systemic metabolic regulation. So this is interesting and I think something that we should, at least know about. I'm not aware that anyone's replicated this study yet. I know there's a ton of excitement about this study in the popular press.
And if the data
turn out to hold up which I like to imagine, they will,
I can understand why there's so much excitement. What this means is that if you're somebody who cares about blood
glucose regulation, you want to keep your metabolism running, please don't stop exercising. The other ways that you exercise. But
if you're somebody who wants to maximize
your health
doing, these Soleus push-ups fairly continuously, while seated
is going to be beneficial.
And in addition to that, I know that there are going to be people out there who for instance, might be injured or you're traveling.
When you're stuck on a plane or you're in the classroom and you're forced to study all day or take notes all day. You're just not getting enough opportunity to
get those steps that you want to take whether or not 10,000 or fewer or more getting enough
steps or movement, maybe you don't have time to get out and do your run or maybe you're also running weight, lifting, and doing yoga
classes, and things of that sort. But you want to further improve your Fitness at least in terms of your metabolic Health, the
seems like a terrific, very
low investment way to do it. Certainly zero cost
it.
Does take a little bit of a tension. So,
you have to divert your attention from other things, you're doing to make sure that you're still doing this solely as push-ups.
I'm sure that many of you are going to have a lot of detailed questions. Such as you know, how high did they lift the heel, and did they
contract the muscle very hard or
not? A couple of things about that? They did not have subjects really
contract, the muscle hard. They did measure the angle of heel
raise and it was anywhere from 10 to 15 degrees. So, you didn't have to go way way up on their tippy toes or things of that sort in any event, 270 minutes, four and a half hours
of doing these.
Solely as push-ups is a
lot, but by my read of the
data and the rather significant, or I should say very significant effects that they observed on blood glucose regulation and Metabolism,
Etc, seems to me that doing less would still
be beneficial and that you don't necessarily have to do the full 270 minutes in order to get the benefits that they observed
more. About this study includes the fact that the benefits they observed, were very
long lasting as long as two hours after a meal, they could still see this improve blood glucose utilization.
I don't know because I wasn't able to find it in the methods, whether or not they were doing the Soleus push-ups
while, they were consuming blood sugar. In this study, the point being that if you're somebody who cares about their Fitness, this study is interesting because what it means is that again, if you are forced to be a
mobile or sitting longer than you would like I feel stuck in a meeting or zooms or class or on a plane at cetera.
Or if you're simply trying to add a bit more Fitness and metabolic Health to your overall regimen solely.
Push-ups least to me it seemed like a very low
investment simple zero cost tool to improve your metabolic health.
For those of you that want to peruse the study in more detail, we will provide a link to this paper published in. I science in the show. No
caption. Before we begin I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is however, 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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constantly expanding again. That's live
momentous.com / hubermann. Let's talk
about Fitness and let's talk about how you can develop the optimal Fitness
protocols for you. So that includes what to
do each day.
Of the week and your Fitness protocol
across the week and indeed across the month and the year, and even year to year,
when we had dr. Andy Galpin on
the podcast. He
said something very important that we
want to keep in mind today, which is
concepts. Are few
methods, are many. That is,
there are an infinite number of different, programs, and exercises, and set, and rep schemes, and different runs and burpees, and push ups, etc, etc. That one can follow. However, there are really just a few basic.
Steps are principles of muscle, physiology of cardiovascular function of connective tissue function that provide or set the basis for the adaptations that we call Fitness, or that lead to Fitness. So I'm going to list those off. Now we can talk about a fitness protocol, that's really aimed. Mainly toward developing
skill, that's one or speed, that's
another or power, which is speed times strength or specifically strength, or hi.
Hypertrophy growth of muscles or endurance, such as muscular endurance, muscular endurance is for instance, your ability to stay in a plank
position or to do a wall sit, you know, to sit on an invisible chair against the
wall or other forms of endurance like near pure and aerobic endurance. So a one-minute Sprint or less or one minute. All out
cycling on stationary bike, this sort of thing
or endurance that occurs in the kind of
Ritu, 12-minute
total duration range, so that might be
Sprint's or high intensity interval type training. It could be a
all outswim. It could be all outro. That's another form of endurance Taps into different fuel systems, different aspects of muscle physiology, Etc. And then
endurance that last 30 minutes or more, which is
typically what people think about when they think about endurance. But of course, the other forms of endurance matter. So we've got skill, speed,
power strength, hypertrophy,
Muscular endurance and aerobic endurance.
What I would call 3 to 12 minutes endurance, although it goes by other names as well and 30
minutes or more endurance type exercise and adaptations
each and every one of these requires different principles different concepts in order to improve
say your muscular strength or your hypertrophy
or both however there's a general theme that sits
beneath all adaptations leading to Fitness and that's what we're really going to set down. As the base layer, the
Of everything we talked about today and
that's that we need to think about what are the
modifiable variables. Again, I'm borrowing directly from the episode with dr. Andy alpen, he was the one that said
modifiable variables. Are the key thing to think about what are you going to modify? What are you going to change in order to increase one or some
of the various things I listed off before skill, speed power strength, hypertrophy endurance, etc, etc.
And some of the key Concepts that emerge from that discussion.
We are that we need to think about Progressive overload. Normally, when people hear about Progressive overload, they think about adding more weight to a bar or
picking up heavier dumbbells, but that could also be
Progressive overload in the context of running up a
hill of steeper incline, or running a little bit faster, a little bit further and so on and so forth. Now,
as I promised earlier today, we are not going to drill into each and every one of the mechanisms
that underlie the different adaptations that are going to develop speed and strength and endurance, etcetera, because that was covered in the podcast with dr. Andy Galpin and
Their podcast with experts that I mentioned earlier and we again will provide links to those podcasts if you want to drill into those mechanisms
instead. What we're going to do is we're going to start with a program that essentially is designed for you to
maximize all
aspects of Fitness to the extent that you can
simultaneously maximize all aspects of
Fitness but then to change or modify that protocol so that if you want to build up more for instance
strength and you want to just hold on to the endurance.
You have you don't want to build endurance, at least, not in that week or that month. You
can do that or if you want to improve your endurance while maintaining your
strength, you can do that and so on and so forth.
Most people I do believe would like a combination of strength and endurance and flexibility and maybe even hypertrophy, particularly for certain muscle groups that maybe are not as well developed as other
muscle groups. They want to bring balance to their physique, both for sake, of Aesthetics, and for sake of health, and for sake of
General functioning to maybe even to eliminate pain. The
protocol that I'm going to describe really works as a foundational template for that as well. So let's drill into that foundational protocol and I'll keep referring to it as the foundational protocol not because it's the one that I use. Although it is
the one that I use and not because it's the one that we're talking about today although it's the one we're talking about today but
because we need some general framework from which to build out the more
specific protocols that we'll get into in a bit more detail later.
So in this foundational protocol for fitness,
what you'll notice is that on any one given day, you're going to focus on one particular aspect of Fitness,
maybe it's endurance, maybe it's strength, maybe it's
hypertrophy in particular. It might be hypertrophy for a particular muscle group or muscle groups that said across the entire week, is designed to bring Fitness and different forms of Fitness
to all aspects of your body.
So this particular protocol begins on Sunday although that's simply the day that I
happen to begin.
Protocol and again, this protocol is not important because it's the one that I follow, I follow it because it is
important. In other words, it's a protocol that's really glean from the scientific
literature in the experts that is for you. So this Fitness protocol is really about you. I just may refer to it as the one that I follow simply for ease of communication.
And for me, my week begins on Sunday. So, I do my very best to get a
workout in on Sunday. And
for me, that workout is that of a endurance workout.
Designed to either maintain or increase my endurance. And the endurance type that I'm referring to is endurance of 30 minutes or more. In fact, for me, the goal is always to get either 60 to 75 minutes of jogging. So, this would be so called Zone to cardio people. Probably have heard of Zone to cardio, but if you haven't, that's okay Zone to cardio something that you could
measure with a heart rate monitor or other
device, but you don't need to zone two cardio. Is the kind of cardiovascular
Your
size in which you're pushing yourself to move such that you're breathing faster than normal. Your heart is beating
faster than normal.
However you are still able to sustain a conversation but if you were to push yourself any harder that is move
faster or go up a steeper incline at the same rate. You happen to be at any one
moment, you would lose that ability to speak.
You wouldn't be able to complete sentences. You would be out of breath or you'd have to pause mid-sentence. Now it's
near impossible.
Possible, even with a heart rate monitor
to stay exactly in
zone 2. Unless you're very, very skilled at that. So, I don't obsess over
that. And in fact, I don't wear a heart rate monitor when I do this exercise. But
for me, the goal is to head out on Sunday and get 60 to 75 minutes of jogging in zone 2. Now, of course I like to jog with that doesn't mean that
you have to jog. You could replace jogging with
Rowing on a rowing machine or maybe even rolling an actual boat if you have access to that
or cycling or swimming. Something that allows you continuous movement for 60 to 75 minutes at that zone to
threshold. We talked about earlier
for me that can include some hills and when I say
Hills, they could be very steep hills but I simply slow my Pace down in order to stay in that roughly Zone to
range. Or it could be that they are more
Low-grade Hills and I might, you know, just slow down a little bit or
I might even push myself a tiny bit that day, but really, I'm just trying to build that
long endurance. I'm trying to build up my capacity or maintain my capacity to go a long distance without fatiguing. Now, some days,
meaning some Sundays, since I tend to do
this, almost always on Sunday, although there are
exceptions instead of doing the 60 to 75 minute, jog, what I'll do is, I will head out for a
long hike that could be
two and a half hours, or three hours or maybe even a four or five-hour hike some
It's
very long and I'll do that sometimes simply to mix up the routine because sometimes jogging and jogging the
same route gets boring to me. I do enjoy running. That's something I've been doing for a very long time but
sometimes it just gets a little bit tedious and I want to do something different. Also, sometimes I want to be social on Sundays, I want to head
out on a hike with my partner or
I want to meet up with friends and hike with them. And so, taking a long hike on Sunday is something that also could be quite
social.
And then I don't have to worry about also getting in my workout, when heading out on a hike with my partner or going out to meet with friends or things of that sort,
I will say that there's a specific tool or a specific change that you can make to this Sunday long endurance or what least, what I
consider long form. Am it's by no means a marathon or an Iron Man. But this
long endurance training and that's the use of a weight vest. So something that I've really started utilizing more
recently and
More recently. I really mean
within the last year or so is I purchased one of these weight
vests that can
be anywhere from 10 to 50 pounds. What I use in the weight vest is irrelevant but it certainly
changes the level of effort required when taking a hike or even a walk. Now
there's an additional benefit of the weight vest, which is that if you are going
out for a hike or even for a walk for social reasons and you're with somebody that's not quite at the same Fitness level that you are,
frankly, it's a little bit rude to just keep
walking ahead of them and running.
Back or running ahead and running back,
you know, often times you really want to spend time with the person and you don't want them to
feel as if they're holding you up.
And so the weight, vest is a terrific way to get some
additional work. Then, as you'll find, if you wear a weight vest, it is additional. Work
on, say a shorter hike. So maybe the person you're
with only has time for an hour, long hike, or maybe they just don't have the fitness to do a two-hour three-hour hike. So,
I'll throw on the weight vest, and I'll head out for a walk with them, or a hike with them. Or sometimes, I'll go out on a long
hike with a weight vest.
Of. So, again, the point of this for me, Sunday, although it could fall on any day for you. Workout is really to build up that long form endurance and this fits well with what dr. Andy Galpin and dr. Peter Oto referred to as the real need to get in some long endurance type work
at some point or even multiple points throughout the week. For
me, this long Sunday, jog of 60 to 75 minutes or long Sunday hike or weighted walk or weighted hike really accomplishes that goal.
It sometimes leads to a little bit of
soreness particularly in my calves or if I'm wearing the weight vest, sometimes my my midsection will get sore because I'm trying to remain
upright. So I think it also builds up some muscular endurance, not just cardiovascular endurance. But again, throughout the entire time that I'm jogging or hiking, what I'm trying to get to is a place where I can feel that my pulse rate is definitely elevated, but it's not so elevated
that have to stop because I'm out of breath and because I know,
People out there might be really neurotic about this sort of
thing, if you have to stop because you're out of breath, that doesn't mean that you blew the
workout that, you know, you aren't getting endurance. Of course, you're getting benefits from it. So I'm not absolutely neurotic about always staying exactly in that heart rate zone. I might stop and have a conversation for a moment if it's a longer
hike, although I really try and keep moving and I try and push myself just a little bit further than
where I'm exceedingly, comfortable. And
so for me doing this long Sunday,
hike or jog, really
provides a foundation.
In a base for endurance that then the other endurance workouts that I'll describe
later and that take place later in the week can build on.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, we will get back to the mechanisms that this Taps into and why this is so useful. There are multiple benefits to doing these kinds of
endurance type workouts and Zone to cardio, but by
putting it at the start of my week. Again, my week starts on Sunday. I'm sure that regardless of how the rest of the week goes
that. I got my endurance training in and of
Course, I'm going to want to and I will do endurance training, other days during the week. But if something comes up or I
happen to get sick or I'm really
behind in terms of work and I can't get other workouts in this Sunday, long jog, or hike really provides that fundamental
I can honestly say
foundation for
cardiovascular fitness and endurance that I can hang my hat on and say, okay, I've got that one in the bag and I can then look to other days of the week to focus on other aspects of
Fitness. Now, really important point to make about this.
Sunday, endurance workout is that allows you
to check off a box and that
box is 75 or
so minutes of Zone to cardio. Because as you may have heard, either in this podcast, or from others out there like dr. Peter
attia, getting 180 to 200 minutes of Zone to cardio per week. Has enormous positive
effects on
longevity and enormous positive
effects on General Health again in terms of cardiovascular function, but also
metabolic fuel
Utilization also, in terms of your musculature and your ability to use
your body over long distances for long periods of time. So while it doesn't complete
all
180 to 200 minutes per week, it
certainly gets you a good distance pun intended toward that goal. Now, I want to acknowledge that some people might be starting, a fitness program and so 60 to 75 minutes of jogging might be too long or a three-hour. Waited vested hike
or some people might even do what's called a rock like you were a rucksack
that might be
Too much in which case, certainly start
with less and go on flat ground and go at the rate that allows you to get into zone two. But that is not excessively difficult for you. And then as you build up Fitness, you can add time or you can add weight through a weight vest or if you don't want to buy a weight vest or can't afford one,
there's a simple solution to that, actually, a good anecdote about that. One time I was heading out for a hike with a friend of mine, he was a former Seal Team operator. I'll never forget this and he said, oh yeah, I'll bring you.
I'll bring you a sack and I thought you meant like a sack lunch, like he was going to bring lunch. And I showed up and he busy, give me a backpack that was
loaded with a bunch of stuff in the backpack weighs about 40 pounds and then we took a
hike. So I was thinking lunch, he was thinking weighted backpack and a weighted backpack or even just any kind of strong sack that you can put over your shoulders or even Carrying Your Arms. It's going to work exceedingly well to build in some
extra requirement for effort so you certainly don't have to purchase a weight vest in order to in order to get the benefits of bringing additional weight along with
You on these long, cardiovascular events,
but again, build up over time. You can add time, you can add weight. And that's also a really nice
feature of adding weight, which is
at some point, your schedule might be
such, or you just don't really want to keep adding more and more and more time on this long endurance. Sunday, in this
case, work out, in that case, add weight, you can
also, as you build up Fitness, you can
add speed to it. Your Zone 2 and what zone 2 is won't shift but
What work is required from you? In order to get into zone, two will shift. That is, as you get more and more fit, you'll have to move faster and or bring more weight in
order to stay in zone 2. And that will simply tell you that you are indeed improving your endurance.
Okay. So then Monday rolls around and I like most everyone else out there. I work on Monday,
I get right into my emails and preparation for podcast and running my laboratory
Etc. However I make sure that at some
point on Monday and for me that's some
Point is typically and
ideally early in the morning, so 7 a.m. or so I train my legs on Monday. So that includes quadriceps hamstrings
and calves. Why do I do that workout on Monday? And what is that workout designed to do? Well, that
workout is really designed to make sure that I'm either maintaining or building strength in my legs. And this is not simply for aesthetic
reasons. This is not simply to grow bigger calves or grow, bigger, quadriceps and hamstrings, although it can accomplish that as
Depending on how you train will talk about details of training. The reason for training legs
on Monday is several fold. First of all, they are the largest muscle groups of the body and by training your legs on Monday, it sets in motion a large number of metabolic
processes that
carry you some distance, even through the whole week in terms of elevating metabolism. In terms of amplifying, certain hormonal events in your body Etc, that are really beneficial. In addition to that, I'm of the belief that the legs are
the foundation of
Of the body and provided you can train legs safely. That
training legs is vitally important. Not just for strength of the
legs but also for strength of your entire body. Again, some of that is through systemic hormonal effects because if you're going to train the large muscle groups of your body under
substantial loads, you will get systemic release of hormones. Not just testosterone, although certainly testosterone but also things like growth hormone. You get increases in all sorts of so-called anabolic hormones that even if you're somebody who's not trying to increase muscle
size,
I realize a lot of people are not trying to do that.
These are hormones that shift your metabolism and your overall tendon strength and ligament strength and overall, musculature into what I would call a strong foundation. So for me, Monday is leg workout. It also, just feels good to
get the leg workout out of the way early in the week
and it accomplishes another goal which is that I sometimes will take one or two days off of a leg
workout because they can be very intense and they are large muscle groups and I'll explain what I do on the off days.
They're not pure off days. They actually include some recovery type training or even some
all-out training. But by training legs on Monday, I'm able to get what I consider the hardest strength and hypertrophy work out of the way. And again,
set all those positive physiological effects in motion for the entire week.
The other thing is that no workout exist in isolation. What you do. One day is going to be determined by what you did the previous day. And even though the previous day, I may have
taken a three-hour. Wait, vested
hike.
Never are my legs. So sore from that long, slow endurance work
because it is long and
slow. Then I'm unable to train legs contrast that with a say high intensity interval training workout, which comes later in the week and my legs might be sore. In
fact, I might not even be recovered such that I'm able to do a real leg work. And when I say real workout, I'll describe what that means in a
moment. So legs come on Monday. And I think that for those of you that are using or interested in using resistance training, I see
Us getting your leg workout done, early in the week. And for those of you that have heard the phrase, you know, don't skip leg day. I will go a step further and say don't skip leg day and fit. In fact, make leg day your first day of strength and hypertrophy training, put it on Monday. I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge one of our sponsors. Athletic greens, athletic greens.
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Okay, so now that we're talking about
Distance training. The question is going to
come up about sets and Reps and all of that
business that was covered in a lot of detail on
the podcast with dr. Andy
Galpin. And I'm going to get into some of that detail now, but I'm going to wait until I describe the entire set of workouts for the week before I go into even more detail. Because there's a way of what's called. Izing that is changing the sets and Reps Etc
across the week and indeed from month to
month, that's really optimal.
I don't want to make it seem as. If all of that, just pertains to the leg workout. It actually pertains to all of the resistance training. So I'll just give you a couple of teasers about the key principles of resistance training that I think are almost universally, if not universally. Then generally
accepted in the strength training and Physiology community. And
then later, I'll get back to some of the overarching
principles that apply to all strength and hypertrophy workouts.
Across the week, including the ones, for the Torso, the arms Etc.
Okay, so legs fall on Monday, I should say that leg workouts like all
resistance training workouts for me consists of about. Again, I'm not neurotic, we attach this, but about 10
minutes of warming up and then about 50, 50 to 60 Minutes of real work. Now, of course, some of that is
going to be rest between sets,
but by real work, I mean really hard work. Not necessarily to failure, will talk about failure in a little bit, but hard work.
Where I'm struggling to complete
the final repetitions if not going to failure to continue to move the weight
repetitions. And again the entire work portion of that workout is
about 50 to 60 Minutes.
Why? Well? Past 60 Minutes, you start getting
increases in cortisol that really impede recovery. And I personally am somebody
that does not recover very
well from high intensity exercise,
I realized that within the literature It is believed and I think
Generally accepted that, when you stimulate muscle hypertrophy or strength
increases, it impacts the
nervous system.
It also causes things like protein synthesis
etcetera. There are number of different
forms of adaptation that occur to give you muscle strength and size changes.
And these days, people talk a lot about needing to stimulate muscle growth or
muscle strength at least every 48 hours. But I can tell you that I
recover rather slowly and I benefit from working the same muscle group about,
Twice per week with longer where I should say more days of
rest in between those workouts. So if I train legs on Monday, believe it or not, I'm only training legs on Monday, I do not have a second leg workout during the week.
However, on Friday, I do a high intensity
interval training session that
serves two purposes one, is it serves the purpose of triggering a certain type of endurance and
getting my heart rate. Very, very high.
And in addition to that, because of the way I do
that work out, it
acts as a sort of supplement or a more moderate intensity
workout for quadriceps hamstrings and calves such that I at least never lose strength. In fact, generally build strength from one leg workout to the next provided I'm doing things correctly.
So, what I'm not referring to
is the kind of classic, you know, super high intensity training once per week and then not actually training that muscle group. Again
for me, it's really true.
Each muscle group twice per week, once directly, and then once indirectly, either
during another weight training workout, or
during a cardiovascular, I should say endurance training workout. So again legs on Monday, the workout is
50 to 60
minutes after a brief warmup. I generally pick two
exercises per muscle group. So again, I'm doing
calves, I'm doing quadriceps, and I'm
doing hamstrings, you should pick the exercises
that work for you.
So that's why I'm actually not going to share which exercises I use. I'll
give you.
A couple suggestions about the ones I do use, but
really exercise selection is
dr. Andy Galpin pointed
out is a very important variable and the key thing to emphasize for that variables, that you need to be able to perform the movement safely.
So I know there's a huge debate out there and people love to argue about whether or not one can squat or deadlift for long
periods of time, or should, or should
not some people say you absolutely should. I personally do not squat and do not dead lift. I've actually never done, much squatting or deadlifting. I know some people out there probably rolling.
Their eyes or switching the channel at this point. But I can
say that for me, I've been able to achieve the strength and hypertrophy goals that I've
been seeking doing things, like leg extensions
and hack squats or for hamstrings. Doing things like leg curls and glute ham raises or for calves
doing standing and seated, calf raises. And so on, I think a key
principle that everyone should pay attention to is one that was taught to
me by an
excellent strength coach years ago and I still use this.
Us. And at least, it works for me for each muscle group, try and find an exercise in which you get that muscle into a
weighted stretch position. So this would be for instance, the standing calf raise, you know, down at the bottom, it's waited and you're in a deep stretch provided you're doing the movement
correctly as well as another exercise where you're getting contraction in the
shortened position of the muscle. So for the hamstrings, that would be the leg curl for the Cavs. It would be a seated calf raise or for the quadriceps the
The leg extension is, you know, if the machine is designed, right, and you're doing it correctly. The peak contraction is largely
going to occur at the at the legs extended position. But then another exercise for each muscle group, that puts the muscle into more of a stretched or at least a
larger range of motion or
compound type movement, but ideally where there's some stretch there. So I guess I will tell you what exercise I exercise I do for the quadriceps is going to be leg extensions and hack squats. I use hack squats because I don't do free bar squats for
Safety reasons and I like the hack squat machine. I'll do
leg curls and glute ham raises for hamstrings, and I'll do standing calf raises and see calf raises for the calves. Again, those are the movements that I use because I can
perform them safely in the repetition ranges in with the weights that are required for me to either maintain or build like strength and calf strength.
But you might decide that for you deadlifts are
absolutely essential and terrific or squats free bar squats are absolutely terrific or front. You know, front squats. I'm not here to tell you what.
Decides to do or not. Do I am telling you that it's probably wise to, at least consider doing at least two exercises per muscle group? Probably three
maximum. If you ask me, if you're doing your entire legs and calves
in one day. But to think about doing one exercise where the muscle is brought into that, shortened Peak contraction position
like like curls are leg extensions or seated, calf raises and then another exercise for each muscle group where there's more
of an elongation and maybe even
a stretch on the muscle group.
In fact, that's a principle that you'll hear me.
Talk about later when I talk about training, other muscle
groups for strength and hypertrophy. So
now you know, approximately how long to
train you might be somebody who can get away with training for an hour and a half and that won't impede you recovery for me that really starts to impede my recovery. Also
if I'm staying on task that 60 Minute limit really works, well for me. Do I occasionally train for 75 minutes? Yes.
Because if I'm waiting for a piece of equipment, sometimes I have to just wait longer so that happens. But I really try and keep the total duration.
Of the workout shorter.
How many sets and Reps, and rest intervals, without was covered by dr. Andy Galpin as well, without getting into the total science. Here's a brief
summary of how to structure that.
It's pretty clear that if you're going to do lower repetitions
and heavier weights that you're going to want to do a bit more volume, I know that this spits in the face of what a lot of people
think, but so if you're going to do 5 sets of 5, I would consider five.
Repetitions low low
repetition range, heavier weight.
And if you're going to train with higher repetitions, you can do fewer sets that certainly works for me. I generally follow a program where for, about a month. So, 3 to 4 weeks, I will do all my resistance training,
in the repetition range of about four to eight repetitions. So that's rather heavy a few more sets, so it might be anywhere from
three to four sets
per exercise.
Again, still just two exercises and longer rest between sets. Anywhere from 2 minutes to maybe even four minutes, if it's really heavy leg work.
And then for the next month, switch to repetition range, that's closer to 8 to 12, maybe even 15 repetitions per set, but do fewer sets overall.
So maybe just two to three sets per exercise again just two exercises per muscle group
typically and shorten the rest between sets. So that it's more in that
90 second, maybe even as short as
60 seconds rest between sets but typically 90 seconds to about two minutes or two and a half minutes.
So basically it's one month. Heavier the next month?
Slightly lighter. Although I wouldn't say light, I would say moderate weight and moderate rep range
that tends to work well for me, it also adheres to a principle that came up during the discussion
again with dr. Andy Galpin,
that for hypertrophy, you really can use repetition ranges anywhere from five to Thirty 30 rep.
But he emphasized changing the repetition ranges in order to offset boredom. Frankly, I like to train heavier. I enjoy training in the 428 rep range. However, I noticed that, if I do that for more than
four weeks in a row and I don't switch over to training in the 8 to 12. Maybe in 15 repetition range for about a month. Well then I can't make continuous progress. I start to actually lose
ground but by switching back and
forth. I actually can make continuous progress at least across the year.
So I hope that that principle
or
Or I should say that protocol was
communicated. Clearly, it works very well. I assure. You does that mean that I never get 10 repetitions on a week when I'm supposed to train in the 428 repetition range? Know, occasionally, I'll Venture up into the 10 repetition range, but I really try and cluster the low repetition work for about a month. Again,
across all workouts, and all exercises and the slightly higher out, even say, moderate repetition work across to the next month.
One thing that you'll notice. And so we are talking about Total Fitness.
Ramming is that during the month,
where you are doing moderate
repetitions. You'll notice that your endurance
work will
actually be facilitated and I do not think that's a coincidence.
In fact, it's not a coincidence. It's because
when you were training, very heavy or in the heavier
range, lower repetitions Etc. You're
tapping into different processes in those
muscles. So, when you head out for that long Sunday, hike, or
as you'll soon hear, whereas
on Friday, you're going to do high intensity interval training.
What you'll notice is
During certain months of weight training, when you're training more heavy, those workouts will feel literally will feel different, then they will drain the months when you're
doing moderate repetition work. I am not a competitive athlete. I'm not running races or triathlons like some of my friends. I'm very impressed by them.
I'm really just trying to get overall cardiovascular fitness, overall strength
overall hypertrophy where I need it, maintain muscle size and Etc. In muscle groups were I'm just trying to maintain. That's really my goal.
So, I'm not trying to optimize any of these workouts for anyone performance feature, but in a little bit we'll talk about how you can change
various aspects, that is variables of this protocols in order to say, for instance, really emphasize hypertrophy or really emphasize
endurance, okay. So with what I would call a standard endurance
workout done on Sunday and I say standard because most people when they hear endurance, they think of the ability to endure to continue the repeated movement or exercise over some period of
time with that work.
Well done on Sunday. And then with the leg workout done on Monday, you can feel really good about how you're heading into the week. However, after
training legs on Monday,
I experienced that doing cardiovascular workouts. The next day is either inefficient, or at least doesn't really allow me to completely
recover from my leg
workout. Now, I realize that some people are going to
immediately scoff at that. And in fact, there are really beautiful papers out there talking about how
one can actually do.
Fair amount of cardiovascular exercise without interfering with their strength and speed and hypertrophy
improvements and vice versa. In fact there's a terrific review that was
mentioned on the podcast with dr. Andy Galpin. This is a review that will provide a citation to and reference and a link to, which is the review by me, rock and Bagley. Which talks about whether or not there's interference between strength and endurance workouts, really interesting review, if you want to peruse that.
But with all that said,
Ed. I like to take Tuesday as a no endurance, no resistance training day,
but that doesn't mean that I'm not doing anything for my overall health and fitness
on Tuesdays. I do a series of heat cold contrast. In other words, I get really, really warm and then I get really, really cold. I get
really, really warm and I get really, really cold
repeatedly and the way I do that is by getting into
a hot sauna. So for me, that's really hot but I've built up my heat conditioning so
Don't do this unless you've built up your ability to withstand heat
and I'll get in for about 20 minutes, sometimes 15, but usually 20 minutes then I get out and then I will get into an ice
bath or a cold water bath. That's about 45 to 50
degrees Fahrenheit. Again, don't get into
water that's so cold that you go into shock. I'll explain what a good cold stimulus
could be for you and how to determine that or if I don't have access to my sauna and my eyes
Bath. What I can do if I'm traveling, as I will take a hot bath and then
alternate with cold shower, hot bath, cold shower.
It's hard to do hot bath ice
bath unless you have two baths. I don't know, any hotel rooms
at least I've never stayed in one that has two baths. Although I'm sure they're out there but for me, this is heat, cold contrast. And really what this day is about is two things. First of all, I'm trying to accelerate recovery from the leg workout, I did previously. Also, if you listen to our episode
of the hubermann,
Podcast about deliberate heat, exposure, or you, listen to our episode of the urine Lab podcast about deliberate cold
exposure. I talk about some of the benefits of heat and cold and I get into a lot of details
about how you can access heat, you can do bad. As you can
do saunas, you can even take
hot showers, you don't have access to any of that. You could even wrap your body from the neck down in garbage bag plastic garbage bags, believe or not, wrestlers used to do this put on some sweats and go running that will get you warm. Again be careful not to overheat and then you can get into a
old shower. So there's a lot of ways depending on your budget and what
you have access to. I don't use cryo these cryotherapy Chambers, they're hard to find they're expensive again, I use sauna and ice bath and I will do
anywhere from three to
five rounds, which is a
lot anywhere from three to five rounds of heat for about 20 minutes and
cold for about five minutes.
How cold should the cold be? We covered this in the episode on deliberate cold exposure. Here's a general rule of thumb. It should be cold enough that you really want to get out.
But not so cold that it's unsafe and
that will vary from person to person so I can't I give you a simple prescriptive there. Same thing with the heat
hot enough that you're sweating and you want to get out but not so
hot that you're running the risk of injuring yourself or killing yourself and again that will vary from person to person so you have to build up, slowly be careful and build-up empirically,
I do that on Tuesdays again as a way to accelerate recovery and because it's very clear that their cardiovascular
benefits, maybe even benefits for the brain.
Related to the cardiovascular benefits because worse the brain needs a lot of blood flow and needs a lot of nutrients and other things flowing into and out of their debris out and nutrients and other things into the brain.
Heat can help accelerate that or improve that. And so I'm doing that to improve cardiovascular function, improved brain
health and then the cold contrast
provides a sort of accelerator on that or an
amplifier I think is the better way to phrase it on that process because in the cold you get Vaso constriction and then in the heat, you get vasodilation. And so you're maximizing that process, which is actually a neural process nerves actually innervate, the blood vessels and capillaries and and even the arteries in order to allow that constriction and dilation process to occur.
So Tuesday is really about recovery, but my recovery day isn't necessarily about just laying around and not doing anything. I
might still also take some walks that day. Remember, I want to try and get that 200 minutes of Zone, 2 cardio across the week.
And sometimes not often, but sometimes I'll get in a
few minutes or more of walking
quickly that day. But generally I'm working a lot on Tuesday as I do on Monday and I'm a little bit tired or maybe even a little bit
sore from my leg workout the previous day Monday. So I try and get that hot.
Called contrast. There are other benefits too hot and cold contrast.
We have a
description of the different
protocols for hot and for cold and their contrast and our huberman lab newsletter. You can find that by going to human lab.com, go to the newsletter tab, under the menu and you can sign up. You can actually download those protocols very easily without even signing up if you just want to access them straight off. So, Tuesday is really
about recovery and about getting some additional
cardiovascular benefits from heat cold
contrast. One other thing that's built into the rationale for doing a
out of heat and
cold on one day as opposed to doing it every day.
Well, in addition to it being a little bit more convenient because certainly some people don't have access to heat and cold sauna and cold dunks Etc
every day. So maybe getting to do that one day as more
accessible or feasible. But in addition to that it's very clear that while there are benefits to doing
sauna often and we talked about this in the deliberate heat episode and the episode with dr. Rhonda Patrick, when she was a guest on this podcast,
it's also clear that if you
USANA seldom that is once a week, but you do a lot of it on one day. So in this
case, it's an hour, if it's remember, it's warm or it's three to five rounds of 20 minutes of sauna followed by about five minutes of cold. Or so
by doing that all on one day, the peer-reviewed research that's covered in the episode on deliberate
Heat. This is a study out of Finland.
Showed that you get massive, even 16 fold
increases in growth hormone which are extremely beneficial for metabolism and for recovery.
So these massive
Pieces in growth hormone are seen when you are doing these sessions of sauna that are repeated on the same day and you're only doing that about once a week. Whereas if you do Saint Amour often there are certainly benefits to that but it's time
consuming and you need access to sauna more often than one day a week if you're doing it more than one day a
week. But if you do it one day a week and you're doing a lot of sessions within that day
as I've detailed here, you see these massive increases
in growth hormone that are not
observed. If you're doing sauna more often for the other benefits,
Sauna. Now, the effects of cold are many. It's not just vasoconstriction, but the effects of cold are also counter balanced by some of the
problems with deliberate cold exposure, that
maybe you've heard about on this podcast and a lot of other
podcasts and seemed to be a kind of
a buzz theme on Twitter and elsewhere. And the point is this, there are a number of quality studies showing that. If you do deliberate, cold exposure in particular, ice baths, or getting into very cold, water immediately after an
Science training session or a strength and hypertrophy session. It can indeed. Yes, it can disrupt or prevent some of the
adaptations that you are seeking with strength and hypertrophy and endurance workouts.
Okay? So you heard that right and I believe that to be true based on now several
quality peer reviewed studies. So
by doing your deliberate cold, exposure on Tuesday, you're not going to get those
effects. That is the blocking of hypertrophy or the
King of strength Improvement or the blocking or prevention of improvements and endurance. That would occur if you immediately got into the ice bath, after a hypertrophy strength or endurance workout. Now the caveat to that is, if
you are somebody who likes to do cold showers, I am not aware of any data that says
that cold showers cannot be performed after a strength hypertrophy or endurance
workout. Cold showers are different than submersion up to the neck in an ice
bath or another
A body of water for a number of different reasons. In fact, they
tap into different aspects of the nervous system entirely. We don't have time to go into that. Now, it's covered in the episode on deliberate cold exposure, but the simple point is, by doing your heat and cold
contrast or Hey,
listen, if you're someone who doesn't have access to Saint, or you don't like hot bath
and you just do some deliberate cold,
exposure on Tuesday. You are doing that separate from your strength
and hypertrophy and endurance workouts. Such that it will not impede the benefits of those workouts, okay, so
long and
Rinse on Sunday leg resistance training on Monday and on Tuesday, heat cold contrast. That brings us to Wednesday. And on Wednesday we get back to a resistance training
workout and the resistance training
workout
that I emphasize on Wednesday
is one in which you train
your torso? Yes, literally, your torso. I know this is counter
to the so-called Bro, Science of bro splits. I
don't know who originated that term. It's a terrible term it essentially
alienated.
Is anyone
who's not a bro or considers themselves a bro, but in any case
this is not about training chest or back or shoulders. In fact, it's really about strengthening the muscles of the Torso, and of course,
includes the chest and the shoulders and the back. And I'm sure as I say this, a number of people out there who are obsessed with hypertrophy and muscle growth and filling out their shirts or
whatever it may be our thing. Oh no, you know, this is just kind of all-around Fitness but no, the point is on Wednesday, you train your
So and that's going to involve some pushing so that's good for you. It might include some
training of things like
bench presses or incline presses
as well as
shoulder presses or lateral raises things for the
shoulders, as well as for the back some pulling exercises, these can be bent over rows or
chin-ups or pull-ups again. There are an enormous number of exercise for
each and every one of these muscle groups. Now, I
believe there's a clear benefit to
training all these muscle groups together on the same day because
much in the same way that training legs all on one day.
Day can lead to these systemic effects because they're large muscle groups working. Both the pushing muscles in the pulling muscles of the Torso on one day. At least in the context of this program is very time. Efficient and tends to Wick out into a number of different dimensions of Health. That least I'm interested in and
I think a lot of other people are interested in. What are those? Well, let's think, again, I want to be strong in, not just my legs, but my upper body, I also
may want may want to engage some hypertrophy to grow certain muscle groups in order to
create a sense of balance that could be
Static reasons but also for balancing strength and for health of and the Integrity of the joints etcetera
and in addition to that by training a bunch of different muscle groups together. You have the opportunity to get
the more systemic
hormonal effects and
metabolic effects that
occur. When you're not just training, one, muscle
group and isolating that one muscle group. But rather training a bunch of muscle groups together.
So Wednesday, I train torso and I do that and push-pull fashion just for kind of time. Efficiency, sometimes that means doing a
pushing exercise.
Sighs, and then a pulling exercise.
Sometimes it might even mean doing a set of pushing, and then a set of pulling and going back and forth. However, if you're in a gym and a particular crowded, Jim, please don't be one of those people that colonize, as multiple pieces of equipment and
says, I'm working there. I'm working
there and, you know, that can be quite a dance, and it can be hard to orchestrate a workout like that. So sometimes it will be starting off with a set of shoulder
presses, and then doing all, you know, all your
sets of those and then moving to your chin ups and then moving
perhaps back to shoulders and realizing
I owe someone
On the machine that I wanted or using the equipment I
wanted. So I'll just finish up the polling. I'll finish up the back work and then going to the
push. I don't obsess over
the alternation in any kind of strict way. I really just try and get the muscles of the Torso trained. And again,
it's two exercises per muscle group. And one of those exercises
is going to be something where there's, I realize, this isn't physiologically
accurate, but a shortening of the muscle, or where they at the end of the movement, the muscle is under maximal contraction.
I could throw out some names of exercises just
For purpose of understanding. So this would be, you know, like
Cable Crossovers for the chest
that the peak contraction is that the end
whereas something like an
incline press. There's more of a stretch provided is done over a full range of motion at the beginning of the movement. So again something where there's a stretch and something where there's a
peak contraction for the shoulders. It's a little bit harder. Do although there are ways to do
that and Jeff cavaliere has excellent workouts available zero cost on YouTube. You also has excellent programs on his athleanx.com
site but certainly has a lot of
When protocols on his YouTube and Instagram. But on YouTube, you can put in
his name and any muscle group that you want to train. It has some
terrific videos, describing exercise, choice and other features of exercise parameters. Again, a peak contraction or shortening of the muscle Peak contraction exercise and a stretching exercise. And so for the
back one
might say, okay I seated row or a bent over row or a dumbbell row, where the elbow is brought behind the tour
So for a peak contraction movement and then for more of a stretching movement, might be something like a
chin-up or a
pull-up. And as I say this, I understand that stretching and Peak contraction, aren't the exact terms that one would use if they were a physio therapist or a strength and conditioning coach. But I think for the typical person who's trying to generate strength and hypertrophy in those muscles or maintain strength
and hypertrophy and those muscles this kind of nomenclature way of describing it at least should be clear and and even efficient
Just to remind you. As with the leg work out, the total duration of the Torso workout is going to be 50 to 60 minutes after a brief
warm-up. The sets and repetitions are going to be dictated in the same way that I described earlier. So for about a month it's going to be
more sets. So anywhere
from three to five sets in the lower repetition range. So forward to eight repetitions. So that's gonna be heavier weights and longer rest. As I described earlier, the rest intervals, and then for the next month, it's going.
To be moderate. Repetitions fewer sets the same way I described earlier. And if you want more details on all of that, you can find that in the newsletter related to the optimal or foundational Fitness protocol, that you can access the huberman.
Lab.com, one thing I should note about the Wednesday torso workout is that I am a big believer in training. The
what I believe is the highly avoided or at least overlooked.
But vitally important aspect of total body, stability,
strength, and safety.
Safety, which is the neck. I realize a lot of people don't want a large neck and I totally understand for aesthetic reasons, why they don't want that. It's kind of interesting. Actually, if you think about it, that people have a large neck are often told they have no neck. People say that guy has no neck or they have no neck. When in fact, they're referring to the fact that they have a very large neck. I don't know how that came to be someone, you put in
the comments. Why? That is how come when people have a
big neck? They refer to it as no neck. So
why do I train the neck? I train the neck for a couple of reasons. One, is years ago, I had an accident where actually fell off a roof
and
I've been training my neck at that time for a
sport that I was involved in and I walked away from it with a sore neck, but not a
broken neck and I thought, wow, it's really great that I have been
training my neck. In addition to that, I was once in a car accident where I was
parked, just bought the car, it's my first new car, purchase
parked in that car with my mother, and my grandfather in the back
seat at the red light. And someone rammed into us at full speed now.
Fortunately, none of us were hurt. We were
all
Rattled. And once again, I was very sore in my back and in my neck, but I think one of the reasons why I was able to essentially walk away from that, I didn't have any sustained damage was because I trained my neck, but I started training my neck for sport,
and I continue to train my neck because I noticed when I don't train my neck, I start getting shoulder issues. And if you talk to an excellent,
physiologists like dr. Kelly Starrett of the ready, State as an excellent Channel, you'll find them are all the social media and standard channels, are you?
Talk to
anyone out there who really understands the strength of the Torso and the upper body and even the back. What you learn is that, of course, being the upper portion of the spine, stabilizing
your neck is very important. Now,
training the neck can be a little bit detailed and specific and even dangerous. If you do it wrong again, Jeff cavaliere has a terrific set of videos on
training the neck properly. I know a lot of people out there, might think neck Bridges and I used to do neck Bridges. I
occasionally still sneak in a Neck Bridge here, there, although I don't recommend.
Many because in discussions with Jeff, he will tell you and it's true that the discs eventually go and you can run into serious issues from doing Bridges, and it
doesn't happen gradually. So, you can't notice it happening. Just happened suddenly. So I might occasionally, do a Neck Bridge. But in general, I'll train neck by wrapping a plate in a towel so that I don't end up with an imprint of the, the weight value on my head or face and then moving the neck from side to side or front or back.
And again refer, we will provide a link to those videos. It's a terrific set of videos.
To
describe how to train your neck properly and safely. So
even if you're not trying to grow your neck, you definitely want to make sure that you use some light weights to make sure that your
neck is stable and upright is a stable and upright because
it's very clear that for
reasons related to texting and staring down at
computers and related to weak
neck, relative to the rest of the muscles that
stabilize the spine. A lot of people,
their default stance or their default posture is with chin forward and that's not good. Not only.
Is it aesthetically not good,
but it also can create all sorts of issues related to back pain and headaches and things of that sort. This is a
real thing, training your neck allows you to stand upright. Sit upright, I
even believe that allows you to do things like public speaking or have conversations with people on the street
in a way where you are
front facing as opposed to looking down.
So Wednesday is torso
and neck and then
comes Thursday. And that means another cardiovascular
exercise session, although it's a brief one.
Unlike
the endurance training on Sunday, the cardiovascular
session on Thursday. And again, for me it falls on Thursday, but for you, it could fall on a different day. Depending on when you started, this protocol
is going to be about again, about 35
minutes of for me running, although it could be rowing, or it could be cycling, it could be something of that sort. The goal of this workout is what's important. The goal of
this workout is to tap into, remember that long list that we talked about earlier where you've got skill and speed and
Power and strength and hypertrophy Etc. Different forms of endurance is to get into that range of endurance where your heart rate is elevated, quite a bit more than Zone 2, but that you're not really going all-out Sprint. So what that means for me is warming up for about 5 to 10 minutes, that could be jogging. A little bit of light,
calisthenics might even be hopping on a stationary bike. Although to be honest I loathe the stationary
bike and then setting a timer and doing about 30, but ideally 35 minutes of
What I call 75 to 80% of all out. Okay, now I realize this spits in the face of all you heart rate monitor wearing
super techie exercise
types. But when I think of all-out Sprint I think of one hundred percent. And what is that? In my mind, that's somebody is chasing me with a needle. Full of poison, and I am sprinting away
at maximum
speed that for me is 100%. So after a brief
warm-up, what I'm going to do is
Out typically outside, although sometimes it has to be on a treadmill if I'm traveling and
move, run for about 30 to 35 minutes at about 75 or 80% of
that. All out.
What that means is that I'm striving to
keep a steady Pace but in reality I don't sometimes have to stop at a stop light. There are cars, please don't run into traffic just to maintain that speed and that timing that would be terribly antagonistic to Fitness and particular
Man
that running tends to be running in which I'm breathing
hard. So I'm not able to restrict myself to purely
nasal breathing and I should have mentioned earlier on the Sunday, long rock or weighted hike
or jog. If I'm alone, I try and do pure nasal breathing
if I'm with other people or I'm
talking obviously I'm not going to appear nasal breathing, because I'm talking although I sure that sometimes they wish I was doing pure nasal breathing
that Thursday workout accomplishes, a number of things. First of all, it really gets my heart rate.
Up and it improves multiple
aspects of endurance. Because as you recall
earlier, the different bins of endurance, that include muscular endurance, anaerobic that 11:57 minute range, and then 30 minutes or longer, none of them. Really precisely match, what's accomplish in this
35 minute or so cardiovascular session, where I'm pushing hard but not all out, but that's exactly the reason to do it, which is that it
Taps into multiple fuel systems for the muscle and multiple aspects
of
of the heart and capillaries and arteries and veins that are involved in generating
that movement. So it
really cuts a broad swath into multiple categories of endurance and
also just keep in mind what this
foundational or optimal Fitness protocol is really designed to do
in my mind a foundational, Fitness protocol is one that leaves
you or has you in a state where if you need to walk really far and
carry a bunch of weight, you can do it. If you need to lift a heavy object with your legs, you can do it. If you need to run, really
I asked for two minutes, you can do it. And if you need to run a little bit further, like maybe even 10 minutes for whatever reason, you can do that. So it's a really kind of all-around fitness program and that 35-minute run again,
could be swapped for the 35 minute, her grow or sometimes, if you only have access to a
stationary bike, you could do that. I suppose, if you didn't have access to any equipment and running is not your thing. One thing that I have done,
especially if I've been stuck in a hotel because I arrived late someplace and I really want to get
This workout in,
you could do the dreaded
Burpee. I know there's a lot of opinions out there. Some people think burpees are downright dangerous. Other people love burpees, you could do
that or you could do really fast, but full jumping jacks. I know it's a little
PE class, right, physical education, class
Ishq, but sometimes, if I need to get the workout in, what I'll do in a hotel, if I've arrived
late particular day of travel is, I will find the stairwell, the fire stairwell. I'll make sure by the way that I can get back into the building because I've been locked in those
stairwells.
And I will simply
walk really fast up the stairwell as many flights of stairs as there are or maybe even jog it,
not quite Sprint but they run up those stairs over and over and over again. In order
to get that 35 minutes of 75 to 80% of Max output cardiovascular work done. And if I'm really just
restricted to my hotel room, I'll just do
jumping jacks for 30, 35 minutes. Sometimes while watching something on
TV and believe me, if you're doing full jumping jacks, like really extending your legs, really getting arms overhead and really doing the
Full movement, my time you hit five or six minutes, you are going to be sweating and you are your heart rate
is really going to be up. I also sometimes will travel with a jump rope. I always try and travel with a jump rope and skip rope much to the dismay of the people Warehouse below me in the hotel room.
Skipping rope. I should mention
can be a very effective way of getting cardiovascular training while you're on the road.
But in all seriousness, if you're in a hotel room or an
apartment and you can't really jump high and you're very good at jumping rope, what you'll find is, it's not going to get you into that higher.
Elevated heart rate zone, okay can be great for Zone 2 type training but if you're
really good at skipping rope and I wouldn't say I'm really good at it but I've done enough skipping rope that I can just kind
of cruise and talk and it's more Zone to wish even feels like walking at times. Now, you can do double unders where you're really jumping and putting the Rope under your twice each
time or crossovers Etc depending on your skill level, but again, if you're in an apartment and you're in a
hotel, that's going to be harder to do and because of
there's some skill involved,
sometimes you're stopping more often than your continuing.
By the way, and I just have to mention this a
really terrific. Instagram
channel is Anna skips. This is a teacher, a science teacher or I believe it's a math maths as they say in the UK because she's in the UK maths teacher, I
don't know Anna, but I know she
skips because she has this amazing Instagram Channel called Anna
skips. And what's really cool about her Instagram and she shows you her progression from not being able to skip rope at
all, to the absolutely incredible types of rope, skipping that she's doing each morning while getting sunlight, which of course is a Essential Health protocol.
Out in a skips on Instagram, really inspiring and made me want to get better at skipping rope. I'm still working on it.
Okay, so, with that Thursday, cardiovascular, let's call it endurance, but cardiovascular, training workout, done around rolls Friday, and on Friday, I'm going to do another cardiovascular training session and I alluded to this earlier. But this cardiovascular training session is also designed to tap into some of the ability of hard. I should say. Hi.
Intensity interval training to tap into strength and hypertrophy increases for the legs. Because remember, we train legs on Monday and what the science tells us is that protein synthesis in a
muscle group. Can be stimulated about every 42 to 72 hours. And so
we've had Tuesday off Wednesday, off and Thursday off, and you don't want to lose
progress that you made from that terrific Monday leg workout. But
In order to make sure that you can do the other things that follow in this program and pick back up on Monday with another leg workout. At least for me with my recovery abilities, in my work schedule. I'm not going to do an
entire other leg workout because it's going to set the whole
thing out of whack that is I won't be able to
consistently. Do the same workout on the same days of each week. Now with
that said a little bit later I'll
explain what happens if you have to miss a workout and how you can combine days Etc. But I really
strive to get certain workouts done on
certain days.
At least as best I can.
So Friday is high intensity, interval training
that can take a variety of different forms
for me. The ideal thing to do for me again, you could do
something completely different exercise Choice again. Should be governed by what you can do safely so you don't injure yourself and that you can perform effectively and that gets
you or provide you the stimulus that you want and what I'm trying to do on
Friday is get my heart rate, way, way
up talked about this in the episode with dr. Andy Galpin in addition,
The benefits of getting 180, 200 minutes of Zone to cardio per week. Minimum, it's a really good idea to
get up to that Max or near max heart rate at least once a week, and you're not
going to do that for very long periods of time. You're not going to that for 30 minutes. You can't Sprint all out for 30
minutes unless you're Steve Prefontaine. If you haven't seen the movies without limits or Prefontaine, you should absolutely see those.
He was able to, you know, go out and run 12
laps, what seemed to be an all-out Sprint. We're close to it incredible but
But most people are not going to do that or going to be carried away on a stretcher. If they try
these high intensity interval training for me, ideally would be on so-called assault bike or airdyne bike. So, these are bikes that have the fan which
might seem like, oh, you know, just cools you off. But actually there's a lot of
resistance there. So what I will typically do is a 20 to 30 second all-out Sprint, using arms and
legs. And then 10 seconds, rest, and then repeat
all-out Sprint for 20 and 30.
10 seconds rest repeat and I'll do that for anywhere from 8 to
12 rounds which trust me even if you start out a little bit less, or I should say not all out intensity or effort by time. You hit the fifth or sixth one. You will be certainly headed into if not
near your maximum heart rate. Now, what is your
maximum heart rate? Do you need a heart rate? Monitor know if you'd like using that sort of thing? Great. But again, Andy Galpin
beautifully, supplied us with the
information. He
Said, if you take the Number 220 and you subtract your age that for most people, most is going to be your maximum heart rate although for certain people who are very fit or certain
ages that's not going to apply so it's a
little bit too crew to measure but it's a good
starting place and you can look up other information or see that podcast episode we provide a link to it in the show. No captions. If you want to get more details on that.
I don't use a heart rate monitor. What I'm trying to do is get to that point where I quote unquote feel like I want to die
now. I don't want to die and please don't die, right? If your
Not in good cardiovascular, health do not just jump right into this Fitness protocol
but I want to get to the point where I really feel like I could not pedal any faster or pull any faster on the, on the assault bike, the airdyne bike, or if I'm doing this workout in a place or at a time or because I
choose to not use a bike or a rower because you could also use a rower. I will simply do Sprint, jog intervals, I will
spring for 20 or 30 seconds, then jog for 10 seconds, Sprint for 20 or 30.
Ins and then jog for for 10 seconds and just repeat. I used to have a big field next to my laboratory, my old laboratory and I used to bring my Bulldog Costello out there. He was really good at the first Sprint part and then you would just lie down and watch. He didn't even do the jog part. I would just go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, panting like a bulldog
non-stop, barely able to recover
before sprinting again and the
basis of this workout again is several fold. First of all,
it's to get the heart rate, really high up towards maximum heart rate, at least once a week. So you accomplish that this Friday Also
If you are sprinting,
and then jogging, or you are really pushing hard on an assault by Turan airdyne bike, or using a, for instance, a skier, or the skier machine, or any number
of different cardiovascular. Training tools, you are going to get activation of the legs. Of course, not to the same degree as you would
with squats or deadlifts or leg extensions, and leg curls. That's simply not the case,
but you're going to trigger strength and hypertrophy and other types of adaptations.
Tations in those muscle groups. So this for me also
represents the second leg workout of the week, where I'm not touching any weights.
One important point that I don't think, I've heard mention anywhere else, but that, I hope to have dr. Kelly Starrett
on the podcast to discuss in that, I've discussed with him. One on one, which is
be careful with all out, Sprint's or all out, anything cardiovascular,
exercise, you can get injured doing those. So,
for instance, if you go out and you just Sprint across a field all out
20 or 30 seconds and then walk back and
Do it again and again, don't be surprised. If the next day you have some sciatica
or even some pelvic floor pain. I don't recommend going all out on any movement that you can't perform with
perfect form.
Okay, so for me, I really try and stay away from all out, Sprint's I'll
Sprint it about
95% of what I can do because I find
if I go all-out Sprint, I don't know what the reason is, but it might be an overextension of a limb or something like that. I'm not a sprinter. I'm not a sprinting coach, I do hope to gets to
McMillan.
On here or
Dan faff, they were excellent sprinting coaches at some point. They're world-class sprinting coaches, but
I'm not a
pro Sprinter. I'm not even a amateur Sprinter, I'm a fitness Sprinter. So the
Arrow Diner assault bike or the rower is really a
safer option for me. And if I'm
running or I'm doing some sort of movement where I'm unconstrained really in terms
of how far my stride is, I mean, I'm obviously constrained by the musculature
I'm really careful to not
overextend or do something like that. And the only way to do that,
As to not go all out.
So, again, the goal for this Friday workout, it's a really get the heart rate, high, do, high intensity interval training.
Her number different ways. You could do that, you can look up HIIT,
hit workouts online, find the one that's best for you and really pick something that's safe that you can do consistently. And I believe that ideally will also trigger a bit of either strength and hypertrophy
and speed power
maintenance, or even give you a little bit of a stimulus. So that by time
you roll around to that leg workout on, again, on Monday, you've got a little bit of an
It'll boost to your leg strength, hypertrophy speed and
power. So we've covered Sunday through Friday.
And then, Saturday rolls
around and Saturday is when you train arms, calves and neck. So this may sound as, if you're training a bunch of small muscle groups biceps
triceps, necks and calves. And that's
true, but I should mention that you are also training your
torso a second time and you're doing it in directly
or sometimes not indirectly.
Do
I say this? Well, keep in mind again that for strength and hypertrophy, you're going for that once
about every 48 to 72 hours. You want to stimulate that on Wednesday is when you train your torso, right? Chest, shoulders, back and neck.
You've had Thursday to rest Friday, to rest. I know a lot of people are going to want to emphasize those body
parts and I think why you have to train it twice a week. But if you have
modest recovery, ability or low recovery ability such as I do,
I do and you're doing these other cardiovascular. Training sessions, Etc. Will then on Saturday is when you will train arms, calves and neck directly. But included
in that. Remember, two exercises per muscle group, one with a peak contraction,
one with somewhat of a stretch in there, included in that, I suggest doing some sort of dip movement, which I think it
was Pablo satsu. Landsat, the dip is synonymous with, or at least similar to an upper body. Squat. Excuse me, Pavel. If I got that wrong, maybe it wasn't you. That said that but big admirer.
His work. And certainly, the dip is a great exercise to hit multiple muscle groups, it chest, shoulders and triceps, maybe even some back to some extent, depending on how you do
it. So doing some dipping movement will indirectly stimulate strength hypertrophy Etc, in the chest and shoulders and including some sort of pulling movement
for the bicep, like a
chin up or Palms facing movement pulling up from to the bar, especially if it's a closed.
Grip tight movement, but even if it's a wide grip, tight movement will, of course, trigger strength and hypertrophy maintenance or improvements in the biceps, but will also trigger strength
hypertrophy in that lat in the
back. Okay, so Saturday is this arm workout with that. I'll just give an example of a potential work out where you might do a few more exercise and maybe not just to but maybe three to make sure you get the Torso indirect stimulation. So what would this look like? Well this might be your sort
of classic dumbbell
For the bicep
and maybe incline curl for the bicep because it has more of a stretch. So on an incline bench,
and then you might finish with two sets of chin-ups. So Palms, facing your chin UPS or three sets of chin-ups depending
on whether or not you're in a heavier load month or a, or a more moderate weight month.
Again activating the
biceps muscles because arms
day, but also
activating strength and hypertrophy in the latter. At least maintaining it so that because you're not training those torso muscles again until
Wednesday, you're not allowing the hypertrophy and strength gains that you generated on Wednesday to atrophy to disappear.
Then thinking about triceps, it might be some sort of triceps isolation or Peak contraction movement
so that could be tricep Kickback or is some
overhead extension? Would be more of a stretch type movement than a kickback, but then also doing regular
old dips, you might even start with dips, which again are going to activate those torso muscles and the triceps. And
then calf work in the same way that you did.
Monday and neck work again, I am a
believer in training neck, multiple times per week and if you are
able to finish all of that in 45 or 50 minutes, great, most people will find when you're doing a lot of small,
muscle groups actually takes longer because you have to go around two more
exercises. But again, just adhere to the same principles
we talked about before about 50
50 to 60 Minutes of
real work, after a warm-up with an asterisk next to that. That if someone's on the equipment or you can't find the dumbbells, you need etcetera, then maybe 75.
It's Max, but really trying to not extend that work out too
long. Making sure that you activate the arms directly but
also activating the Torso muscles indirectly. And again, I won't repeat it this time again,
but following the same weight and repetition and rest
interval scheme that we talked about earlier, a bit
heavier lower reps, more
sets and longer rest for about a month and then alternating to
more repetitions
yet. Fewer sets
Shorter rest intervals and do that for about a month. This carries through for all the resistance training workouts, regardless of the day of the week.
So we completed the total Arc across the week and we can summarize it as saying Sunday is let's just say long endurance. Monday is leg resistance training Tuesday, heat cold contrast, Wednesday torso training plus neck Thursday I would call it moderate intensity
cardiovascular exercise so that 35 minute
Moderate intensity cardiovascular.
Exercise Friday high intensity, interval
training of sprinting or some
variation thereof and Saturday arms. Calves neck
and torso indirect work.
That's the total structure but I want to emphasize again, you do not need to start this on Sunday. That is, you could make the long endurance work. Start
on Tuesday and then just fill in the rest as described before. It's really up to you.
There's another important point I want to make which is that
Neither. I nor anyone is going to be successful in doing the
exact work out on the exact same days of every week because of travel work illness other demands Etc. The
thing about the schedule that I like so much that, I do believe that will benefit you as well. Is that you have some
flexibility there? What's the flexibility? Well, let's say you
train your typical Sunday work out of endurance, then you train legs on Monday and then you don't manage to do your
heat cold contrast on Tuesday for whatever.
Well, you can put it on Wednesday. Just make sure that if you're going to do the cold stimulus, that you don't do it too close. Not within for ideally eight hours
after the
training of torso but you could do it before or you could do it just heat and
skip the cold that particular week. Alright not ideal, but better
than not doing anything. Let's say, for instance, the leg workout was particularly brutal. You don't sleep that well on Monday night or Tuesday night. Well, then,
You do the Torso workout on Wednesday? Well, I would say, why not move the heat cold contrast to Wednesday and then push that torso work out to Thursday and maybe also try and do that 35-minute run on Thursday. Every once in a while rather than lose, the total control of the program and let everything Shuffle forward. Here's the basic principle. I do believe that any one of these
workouts, whether it's for endurance or resistance, training can be shifted,
either one day forward or
And a back, right? You could delay it by a day or you could accelerate it by A Day In order to make sure that you get
everything done across the
week. In fact, I would say the best way to think about this
foundational. Fitness
program is not from the details up. But
from the top down from the big picture down to the details and say to
yourself once a week, you're going to get some long endurance in another day during the week, you're going to make sure that you get a kind of moderate faster and
Intense workout in and then one other day during
the week, you're going to get an all-out Sprint, high-intensity cardiovascular exercise workout it. You're going to get those three workouts in
somehow. And then in addition to that, you will also do resistance training for every muscle group in your
body. And that means doing your legs hard at least once a
week. Your torso hard
at least once a week and your arms hard at least once a week. And of course, you are, also paying attention to train your calves and I do.
For reasons, I described before believe that you want to train your neck, at least to keep it strong. You may not want to generate
hypertrophy there
people vary in terms of how quickly their net grows. Some people goes very, very fast other people for the life of them. They can't get much hypertrophy in their neck but keeping that neck, strong at least through some very light. Work to moderate weight work. Very, very important for reasons. I stated earlier
if you set out those goals then the specific days that you do each workout isn't as critical.
Kuil but the specific spacing is. So for instance, you're not going to want to do your high intensity, interval training the day
after you, train your legs. Because if you're doing the high intensity interval training correctly, you're going to be taxing your legs and eating into their recovery. And so you want to space them out by two or three days.
So I think you'll notice that the point is really to optimize everything on the whole rather than any one specific
aspect of training or adaptation.
Now that said I do realize that some people
Might be hyper
focused on things like strength and hypertrophy and the Aesthetics that come with it. But key point about strength, hypertrophy and weight training and this is something that has been covered on multiple podcasts. Certainly the one with Jeff cavaliere and with dr. Andy Galpin in the one that I did on building muscle strength and hypertrophy the solo episode.
And that is the following. It is the rare individual who has perfectly balanced musculature. Most people can be a bit
Quad dominant or hamstring dominant or they have trouble activating their glutes or somebody has a terrible time trying to activate the chest muscles but they're very strong in the back. Etc. It's very clear
that we can
know that not just based on Aesthetics, right. But based on deliberate contract
ability of those muscles. So I
don't want to get into this in too much detail for sake of time but this is something that has peer-reviewed
research to support it and was also discussed extensively with Jeff cavaliere.
Was a guest and that actually, he's really
popularized this notion and it's absolutely true. Which is that, if you can contract a muscle very hard to the point where it almost feels like it's cramping, if you can do that, even when there's no
weight in your hand, or there's no resistance against it, so you're just
using your mind muscle
connection to contract, that muscle,
hardened isolate. It chances are you will be able to generate hypertrophy and strength
gains pretty easily in that muscle
compared to muscles that you have a harder time activating. So during all resistance training that mind-muscle link is,
We important so much so that some people will even try and emphasize contraction of the muscles in between sets Etc. I personally because I'm not somebody who
likes a mirror when I workout and I'm not somebody who wants to spend time in between sets, flexing, muscles, and etc. For whatever reason, I want to actually rest between sets and I'm
more concerned with performance during those sets and really
putting my mind into the muscle. During the
set, I really try and emphasize deep relaxation between sets and so here's a tool that again is built out of
Science and I should say, peer-reviewed studies, some of which are being done in my lab, but other labs as well, which is an in between sets.
What I really strive to do is to bring my heart rate down as much
as possible. Calm myself down as much as possible and I'll do
the so-called physiological PSI
in order to do that. That's two inhales through the nose, back to back
and then long full.
Exhale through the mouth. I just did it partially there before sake of time again,
so big, deep inhale, through the nose, and then sneak in a little bit more on
a second. Inhale to maximally inflate the lungs in the AV Oli the lungs, and then a full, exhale of all your air via the mouth to empty your lungs. That's the fastest way that we are aware of to calm your nervous system down and really in between sets, you can use that to calm yourself down and conserve energy. But then
as you move into the weight training
set, you really want to ratchet up your focus and
attention to the muscles that you're going to be using. Now, I'd like to acknowledge that there's a
huge range of parameters in terms of how to
actually
Performed during the set, you can focus on a particular muscle and try and really isolate
from the beginning of the movement. Some
people really try and isolate it only during the peak contraction. Some people accentuate, the - their Speed and Cadence,
there are again. Remember, concepts are few methods are many. And if you're interested in the various methods of eccentric and concentric sand, all the different ways of changing up, Cadence, and so forth. During sets, there's an enormous amount of
quality information out there far, too much for us to get into into detail
now. But what I
Describe the general principles of how to set your mind. If you will during the
set, you should be focused on the muscles that you're using and or moving the weight. If movement of the weight is more important, you can either focus on moving the weight or challenging muscles, right? You can either try and isolate muscles and make specific muscles. Do the work or simply moving
the weight moving. The way to sum is going to be more geared towards strength improvements but
focusing on the muscles so called my muscle link is going to shift that very same set more toward
hypertrophy, I realize I'm painting with a broad.
Brush here. But nonetheless this is
grounded in the way that the nervous system governs muscular contraction.
And while I think most people are familiar with the number of different variables
associated with the resistance
training sets reps, rest intervals, Cadence etcetera. There are also a tremendous number of very important
variables for endurance in any kind of cardiovascular training and there are a lot of excellent resources out there about that. I think the most important one, in fact, I will go on record saying
what I believe to be the
The most important variable for any endurance or cardiovascular training is that because it's a repetitive movement that you're able to complete the movement safely. Meaning, you're not putting your body in to range of motion or into
positions that can damage
joints or put you in
any kind of compromise State. And some of you might think well, that seems kind of silly, but if you've
ever set the, for instance, the seat too high on a stationary
bike and then done, you know, airdyne or assault bike type interval training.
Sprint's if
Set too high and your over-striding as it were the next day. You can really pay the price in terms of some
back pain or sciatica and sometimes that pain can extend for quite a while. So of course, you don't want to approach any exercise with so much caution that it's neurotic and preventive. And yet you don't want to
approach any exercise in any way. That's so Cavalier,
forgive the pun. Jeff
that you're
also going to compromise your the Integrity of your joints and musculature and connective tissue.
Let's talk about some
real-world practical variables.
For instance, let's say you get a poor to terrible
night's sleep. Should you train the next day or not?
Well, that really depends. I can honestly say I've had some of the best training sessions, resistance, training or endurance training sessions after a really poor night's sleep but that's the rare event more
often than not, if I'm
not sleeping. Well, I've had a terrible night's sleep. The next day, I will just
skip training that day. I know that
will shock a number of you out there or perhaps you're already calling me names.
His weak etcetera, but I find that if I've slept really poorly or I've had a very stressful event the day before, and I don't sleep. Well, training, the next day, sets me up for getting ill and getting ill
sets me up for not being able to train for multiple days.
So it is my preference in that case to skip a day and really focus on recovery. And then as I mentioned earlier, slide that work out to the
next day and
rarely double that workout up with another workout.
But then just slide the
Or forward by a day,
but I really try and strive that is I really tried to double up at least some workouts later in the week in that case. So that I can get back on schedule of
starting the seven-day protocol again on the same
day. I don't want to be excessively. Vague there what I'm trying to say is I try and adhere to the same schedule, but if I get a poor night's sleep, I'll just simply skip the workout. The next day,
Slide the workout forward, there is
one exception to that and it's an important exception which is, there are times when I've not slept,
Or I've had some particularly stressful event the day before and haven't slept well,
but I'm able to do so called NSD are non sleep, deep rest the next day. So there have been times when I've only
got three or four hours of sleep the night before, and I'm feeling a
really behind the ball. The next
morning, I really want to get my workout in. So instead, what I will do is a 10 but ideally, in that case, a 30 or even 60 Minutes, non
sleep, deep rest, and
there's a 10-minute non sleep. Deep rest
protocol read by me.
But it is a
non-spiritual non-mystical science supported, non sleep deep rest
protocol available on YouTube. You can simply put my name huberman, put n SDR and virtue, sanvi IRT usan
into YouTube. And you'll find that
script. There are other NST R scripts that you can find now on Spotify and on YouTube. And if you fall asleep, during those non sleep, deep breaths scripts, that's great. And if you don't, you will
also find that it will restore your
ability to perform mental and physical work.
So there are times when I haven't gotten as much sleep as I would
like or I'm feeling a bit more stressed for whatever reason and I'll do NS TR and then I will go train and that often Works fabulously well for me and then I don't have to skip a workout entirely just because I didn't get a good night's
sleep. A lot of people ask whether or
not you should train fasted or fed and this is a very
controversial area. I personally prefer
to do my cardiovascular work, not having eaten anything in the previous three
To 10 hours and typically that's because I wake up and I'll do the cardiovascular training within about an hour of waking up sometimes later because my first meal, generally Falls generally not always falls around 11
a.m. I don't do any kind of formal intermittent
fasting but typically my meal schedule, somewhere between 11 a.m. And my last bite of food is around 8 p.m., but I'm not super strict about that. I might eat in you know as late as 9 p.m. and I might eat something at 10 a.m. if I wake up really hungry, I might have something before 11 a.m. I'm not neurotic about
But in terms of training, I like to train fasted and that includes the resistance training workouts. And those come early in the day for me, and
typically, if I'm going to train legs on
Monday, for instance, which is when I train
legs, I'll make sure that the night before. I'm ingesting, some starch, some carbohydrate like rice or pasta, or something of that. Sort to make sure that when I do that morning leg workout, I have enough glycogen in the muscles Etc.
Again nutrition is a somewhat
controversial area. In fact, it can evoke very strong feeling since I know we've
Vegans, and we've got omnivores. And we've
got carnivores and people are Aikido. This isn't really the format for us to get into all of that. I think the rule to follow is figure out what
optimizes your training for your particular training
goals. For me that most often means training fasted. And then eating pretty soon after I trained. And if it's a high intensity resistance training, workout, and frankly, all of my resistance training workouts are pretty
high intensity. I'm not going to failure on every set, but at least say about 30% of those sets, I'm going to fail.
And
the other sets, I'm working very hard nonetheless. Well then I eat some starches after I train and I also ingest some protein in the form of a protein, drink or a meal, that includes some protein food. But I don't like to eat before I do resistance training, or not. Or at least not within the hour or two before. I do resistance training, there are exceptions to that. And I should say that the same basically applies to endurance work. If I'm going to head out for a run, typically, I don't want my belly full of food or any food at all, but there are times where
Where I wake up hungry and I very much need to eat something or I have something scheduled
socially like a
breakfast, and I'll have that
breakfast. And then an hour or 90 minutes later I'll do my
workout because I want to make sure that I finish the workout. I again I'm not neurotically attached to training fasted or fed for me. Fasted is preferred but if I have to train fed better to train them to not train at
all, we haven't talked so much about flexibility yet, but we did an entire episode of the human
Lab podcast on flexibility. And I encourage you
to check out that episode
Sewed, if you're interested in increasing your flexibility but the basic takeaway from that episode. Is that if you look at what I like to call the center of
mass of the research, that is most of the studies and what the conclusions of most of the quality studies point to. So not the exceptions but the kind of general rules that have been gleaned over time from multiple Labs over
multiple decades Etc. What you find is that static stretching that is holding a stretch and in fact exhaling and
relaxing the midsection
Action and torso, and relaxing into the stretch as opposed to
staying full of air and tense but mentally and physically relaxing into the stretch but not stretching. Maximally that is not extending as far as you possibly can go but more like 60 percent or even less and then holding those static stretches for anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds. And then repeating doing that two or three times throughout the week for multiple muscle
groups. So it could be for your quadriceps could
be / hamstring.
Use for your lats, their protocols out there. In fact, we have a newsletter that is focused entirely on
protocols for flexibility and stretching. You can find that again by going huberman, lab.com, you don't even need to sign up
for the newsletter. Although we invite you to if you like but you can simply go there, scroll down to the flexibility newsletter and all the protocols are there for each of the muscle groups. Etc. But what I typically try and do is some stretching in the evening because I trained in the morning as I'm perhaps getting ready for bed or
If the TV is on which in our house doesn't typically go on because we don't have a TV but of course their computers and, you know, people are on their computers etc. Well, I'll try and do some stretching
while I do that. I also have a standing desk,
so during the day at work regardless of whether or not I train that morning or not, or I'm going to train in the afternoon, I'll try and do some static stretching my hamstrings, my quads, my lats, my shoulders, my
back really doesn't take much time. And I really trying to space that out throughout the week, which if you look at the peer-reviewed research,
Matches. Well, to what's known to be most effective, which are going to be short, repeated
sessions ideally every day. But truth told, I
fail categorically fell. I was about to think of whether or not I ever stretch every day.
I fail to do it every day, but I get about three or so stretching sessions in per week. And again, it's just static. Hold trying to really
relax into the stretch. Now, the
relax into the stretch is something that's been talked about in martial art circles and Pavel. Set Zulan, has an excellent book on stretching, we can provide a
link
To that
talks about. This has a lot to do with relaxation of the nervous system and the way that the nerves innervate muscles and allow
for stretch, if you will, also the way that the tendons and ligaments are innervated by nerves, the
converse is also true. And here again, this is a principle that Pavel has put forth. I believe, he calls it. Irradiation, meaning a
radiating out or
emanating out from a source which is that while exhaling and relaxing, the Torso, the midsection,
some people call it the core.
Although some people don't like that term,
can facilitate relaxation and stretching through a larger range of motion. So to can Contracting the core, the midsection or gripping, very tightly with the fist. Can facilitate muscular contraction because of the way that the nervous system, rep, Ali. I, we can even say over represents the Fists in the brain. And so, how would you apply this to your overall foundational Fitness protocol? Well, it turns out
Doubt that, let's say you're doing a movement that involves
one, limb moving. And then the other, let's say, it's bicep curls, just for sake of example,
it turns out that you will actually be
stronger in moving that dumbbell with the arm that happens to be moving. If you
grip the handle very tightly but also grip the handle of the opposite
dumbbell. Very tightly. Now that said in between sets, I encourage you to do the opposite to try and completely relax in between sets combine that with the physiological side and
And when the set the next set, commences employ that very
strong grip, both again of the of the way, that's moving in the way that at that moment might be stationary or an isometric position.
So the nervous system, of course, is what controls muscles and that
operates in both directions. If you want to relax, try and use long exhales, maybe, even physiological size and really concentrate on mentally and physically, relaxing and particular, your core, and your fists. And if you want to generate force and you want to move,
Of a heavy barbell or dumbbell, you want to do a chin-up with the maximal force.
That's when you can employ the opposite, which would be to grip
the bar or dumbbells, Etc. Very
tightly. And you want to
contract your core or even fill your body with air as they say, plug all the leaks etcetera.
So this gets into kind of form and movement, which is an extensive near-infinite landscape of discussion. Again, that we don't have time to go into just want to mention those two nervous system related tips. Because I
suppose is a neuroscientist, they appeal to me because they are grounded and
Principles of how the nervous system innervates muscle and I know that they will
benefit you the first time you use them and every time speaking of grip and nervous system and fitness and Longevity dr. Peter Atia, who is a medical doctor was a guest on the huberman Lab podcast and provided an enormous wealth of
information on that podcast episode. I really encourage you to check it out when you have time,
and of course, has his own spectacular podcast. The drive
with Peter Atia Peter, dr. Arati I should say
often talks about certain movements were exercises that you
Should perform not just to improve your Fitness but also to touch into or measure how fit you are and how well you are progressing
toward a long lifespan and healthspan and one of
those includes the ability to hang from a bar for
a minute or longer. And there are a number of different expectations that one can have of how long they should be able to hang from a bar, depending on their age and their Fitness level Etc. Please check out dr. Atilla's podcast and his various social media sites to get more information on that.
But what I can tell you
Is that if you're going to hang from a bar and you want to hang from that bar, as long as possible, which turns
out to be a interesting and important metric of your health,
then gripping the bar, very tightly will actually, help earlier we talked about whether or not to train if you're sleep deprived and
how to recover
from what I would say, is moderate
sleep, deprivation by doing NSD are, as opposed to Total sleep, deprivation link being up all night or having a truly miserable night, which case I think you should just skip training the next day and slide it
forward. Now a
Allure issue comes up from time to time where people wonder whether or not they
should train or not, if they are sick
here, there's all sorts of
crazy. Jim lore and sport-specific, lure. For instance, I used to hear this, when I ran cross-country, there was this adage that. If the symptoms
were from the neck up, you could still
train. That is, if you were really
congested and you had a headache, you could still run. Whereas, if it was in your chest and your
Things you can't run. I don't think there's any data whatsoever to support whether or not that's true or whether it's not true for myself and because my general goal is to be training and fit over time, but also to include General
Health, in the fitness equation that is to not be sick or chronically sick and certainly not to get other people
sick. If I have a little tiny sniffle, like I think I might be getting sick.
Even then I'm a little
cautious in the sense that I'm
not going to do my
typical work out. I might stop at about 15 minutes earlier and I would do that not by neglecting any body parts or anything of that. Sort of, it's a weight training workout,
by by simply reducing the total number of sets.
I probably wouldn't do any sets to failure. If I did, I might reduce the total number or percentage of sets to failure from about 30% of sets to maybe closer to 10% of sets something like that.
And if it was endurance work, I might throttle back.
Ten or twenty percent, and I will shorten the total duration of the
workout. And I often find that
because of the known. Yes, peer-reviewed known immune system. Enhancing effects of exercise, sometimes that alone will allow me to avoid getting
sick. But of course, I'm also careful to get home. Take a hot shower, not stress. Myself out. If I can avoid getting myself stressed out and focus on sleep and SD are other forms of recovery. Good nutrition, Etc.
If however, I have a real sniffle a cold
I'm not feeling well or I think I might be coming down with the flu. I absolutely do not
train and I don't get back into training of any kind until I'm completely recovered.
So, what I'm basically saying is that, no, I don't believe you should train if you're
sick. And perhaps
equally importantly, when you come back from a layoff of any kind, whether or not because of illness or, for whatever
reason, I do believe that because your body is a bit
untrained, it's not ideal to jump right back into maximal training and to take
One, maybe two weeks of ramping up the to the full
duration and intensity of workouts that, then I would continue ongoing for however many cycles I can complete before I hit another sickness, or I had another Gap in my schedule due to family obligations or other obligations
Etc. So we've covered a lot of tools and
protocols and variables related to Fitness but we have by no means covered all the available tools and protocols and variables.
Before we wrap up I do want to
Emphasize one tool, it's a very easy. In fact,
zero-cost very low time, commitment tool.
And this was one that was provided Again by dr. Andy
Galpin, when he was on the huberman Lab
podcast, and it's a tool that there is excellent research to support the effectiveness
of and that I do believe should come at
the end of every training session. And that's to do three to five minutes of deliberately, slow breathing. It sounds so simple three to five minutes of
Liberally slowed breathing. So this could be while you're in the shower,
or when you arrive at your car, you might sit in your car quietly and do that if you have time or maybe even while you're driving that to or on to your next destination
just to really slow down your breathing to really look at the recovery period that has
to follow each training session and of course, during which the adaptations the changes that make you more fit than you were going into the exercise occur and that three to five.
It's of deliberately, slowed breathing has been shown in Andy's group, and in related experiments not exactly the same but related experiments in our laboratory. And another Laboratories to really so-called downshift, the nervous system and really set you up for maximal, Recovery, rapid recovery and allow you to lean into
the next training session with full intensity when that training session eventually
arrives. So it's a very simple tool but a very potent tool
for your overall Fitness.
So thank you for joining me for this discussion of what I'm calling.
A foundational best we could even get bold and call it an optimal Fitness protocol though.
The word optimal is a tricky one. There's
no real optimal Fitness protocol
and today what I've really tried to focus on is
this foundational protocol
because it does allow you to check off most, if not all the
boxes related to strength
endurance, hypertrophy speed, power flexibility
will also teach you how to regulate your nervous system up.
And down that is to
ramp up and focus on muscle link Etc.
And then quickly calm down physiological size, three to five minute decompress breathing, at the end of
training, Etc. Really, even though I talked about the protocol
that I follow and again that we will provide as a newsletter at huberman live.com. If you want to look at it in more
detail, even though we talked about it in the context of what I do. Again, I really want to emphasize that this
protocol and the description of this protocol and all its variables, it's really for you and for you to take
To your specific needs. So, please
take the protocol into consideration but do not treat it as holy treated as a
starting point from, which you can adapt it to your specific. Fitness needs,
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