WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.939 Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most 00:00:05.023 --> 00:00:09.835 potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health, physical health, 00:00:09.918 --> 00:00:14.476 and performance. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:17.592 and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. 00:00:17.675 --> 00:00:22.327 And now for my discussion with Dr. Andy Galpin. Dr. Professor Andy Galpin. 00:00:22.410 --> 00:00:26.659 Super excited to have you here. You're such an immense treasure trove 00:00:26.742 --> 00:00:30.991 of information on physical training and optimizing for specific goals 00:00:31.074 --> 00:00:36.076 and outcomes. How should I or anyone else for that matter think about their level 00:00:36.160 --> 00:00:41.036 of fitness in terms of really assessing whether or not I'm as fit as I could be 00:00:41.120 --> 00:00:44.510 and should be both for sake of health and performance? 00:00:52.410 --> 00:00:56.127 This is, I want to be big or want to not be too big or I want to be lean. 00:00:56.210 --> 00:00:58.834 There is an aesthetic component to almost everybody. 00:00:58.917 --> 00:01:01.853 They want to look a certain way or not like a certain way. 00:01:01.936 --> 00:01:03.550 The other one is functionality. 00:01:03.780 --> 00:01:06.397 So I want to be able to perform a certain way. Now, again, 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:09.703 that definition differs per person. So I want to be better at strength. 00:01:09.786 --> 00:01:13.660 I want to be better at mobility. I want to be able to have energy throughout the day, 00:01:13.744 --> 00:01:17.432 whatever it is. So there's some sort of appeal to aesthetic and there's some sort 00:01:17.515 --> 00:01:21.067 of appeal to functionality. So within both of those categories, we want to... 00:01:21.150 --> 00:01:24.610 Be in a position where We can understand – 00:01:24.780 --> 00:01:28.982 Where do I need to go with my exercise training so that I can be as fit and 00:01:29.066 --> 00:01:31.990 as healthy and – achieve these goals that I want now. 00:01:32.550 --> 00:01:36.846 as well as be in a position where I can maintain them for a long period of time. 00:01:36.929 --> 00:01:41.171 So this blends both immediate goals. So say you're just interested in squatting 00:01:41.254 --> 00:01:42.130 a lot of weight. 00:01:42.660 --> 00:01:46.537 Say you're interested in running 5K time the best you want. It doesn't matter. 00:01:46.620 --> 00:01:51.080 It blends that with the ability, the desire to have a long wellness span. 00:01:51.390 --> 00:01:55.393 to be fit throughout life, to achieve all those things for as long as possible. 00:01:55.476 --> 00:01:58.890 So then the question kind of comes back to saying, how do I know – 00:01:59.490 --> 00:02:03.456 which area I need to focus on the most and why am I not achieving these goals or how 00:02:03.539 --> 00:02:05.189 can I get there more effectively. 00:02:05.670 --> 00:02:10.096 And if we look at the big picture, we have to understand that there are several major 00:02:10.179 --> 00:02:10.897 components 00:02:10.980 --> 00:02:15.051 to physical fitness that are going to be required in all of these categories. 00:02:15.134 --> 00:02:19.180 And to achieve that, there are a handful of components that have to happen. 00:02:19.470 --> 00:02:22.950 So what I'd love to do today is over the course of our discussion is, 00:02:23.070 --> 00:02:26.766 hit exactly what those concepts are, and then cover a whole bunch of different 00:02:26.849 --> 00:02:30.817 methods, and we could do that for hours, but we'll cover a number of them for hours 00:02:30.900 --> 00:02:35.052 various goals. What are the major adaptations that one can create in 00:02:35.135 --> 00:02:35.968 their body? 00:02:36.090 --> 00:02:40.562 using exercise the physiological adaptations can be bucketed really in nine 00:02:40.646 --> 00:02:45.604 areas so the very first one is what i call skill or technique this could be running 00:02:45.687 --> 00:02:50.038 more effectively this could be practicing a skill like shooting a ball or 00:02:50.121 --> 00:02:50.954 an implement 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:54.963 swinging a golf club, anything like that. I call that skill development. 00:02:55.047 --> 00:02:59.054 The second one is speed. This is simply moving at a higher velocity or with 00:02:59.137 --> 00:03:02.708 a better rate of acceleration. That's very similar to the next one, 00:03:02.791 --> 00:03:04.700 which is power. And power is speed. 00:03:04.920 --> 00:03:08.222 Speed multiplied by force. The next one then, of course, 00:03:08.305 --> 00:03:12.937 on top of that is force or strength. Those are really synonymous terms, right? 00:03:13.020 --> 00:03:17.047 How effectively can you move something? Now, this is often confused, 00:03:17.130 --> 00:03:21.067 strength rather, as muscular endurance. So what I mean by that is, 00:03:21.150 --> 00:03:25.391 Strength truly is a marker of what's the maximum thing you can move or it's 00:03:25.474 --> 00:03:28.507 the maximum amount of force you can produce one time. 00:03:28.590 --> 00:03:32.407 Number five is muscle hypertrophy. And this is the first time now we're talking 00:03:32.491 --> 00:03:35.025 about an appearance rather than a functional outcome. 00:03:35.108 --> 00:03:38.185 This is the first one that's just simply how big is your muscle, 00:03:38.268 --> 00:03:40.518 and that's muscle hypertrophy or muscle size. 00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:46.060 After that is muscular endurance. So this is how many repetitions you can typically 00:03:46.143 --> 00:03:47.737 do of a movement. So think of 00:03:47.820 --> 00:03:52.545 how many push-ups in a row you can do, how many sit-ups in a minute you can do, 00:03:52.628 --> 00:03:56.622 things that are typically in like 5 to 50 repetition sort of range, 00:03:56.706 --> 00:04:01.248 and it is almost always local muscle. A push-up test is really how many reps 00:04:01.331 --> 00:04:04.108 that your triceps and pecs and deltoids can do. 00:04:04.192 --> 00:04:09.038 It is not a cardiovascular endurance. It is not a global physiological endurance. 00:04:09.121 --> 00:04:11.860 It's specific to typically one or a few reps. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:15.292 muscle groups at a time. This is why you have to do multiple tests for sort 00:04:15.375 --> 00:04:19.539 of every group there. After that, now we've moved into number seven, 00:04:19.622 --> 00:04:24.469 which is what I call anaerobic capacity. This is more synonymous with maximum heart 00:04:24.552 --> 00:04:28.710 rate. And now we're actually looking at rather than a single movement, 00:04:28.860 --> 00:04:32.466 or muscle group, it is a total physiological limitation. 00:04:32.550 --> 00:04:36.947 It is the maximum amount of work you can do in say 30 to 45 seconds, 00:04:37.030 --> 00:04:39.912 maybe even up to 120 seconds of all out work. 00:04:39.995 --> 00:04:45.127 Think of your classic interval type of stuff, So how much work can you do? 00:04:45.210 --> 00:04:49.384 at a maximum rate where you're going to enter tremendous amounts of global 00:04:49.467 --> 00:04:52.605 fatigue. The next past that is maximal aerobic capacity. 00:04:52.688 --> 00:04:56.370 And this is probably something like in the 8 to 15 minute range. 00:04:56.520 --> 00:05:02.539 where you're going to reach probably both a maximum heart rate as well as a true VO2 00:05:02.623 --> 00:05:05.020 max. So that is different from... 00:05:05.340 --> 00:05:09.010 the previous one where you can't reach this in a matter of seconds. 00:05:09.094 --> 00:05:13.212 It simply takes multiple minutes to get to a position to where your VO2 max 00:05:13.295 --> 00:05:14.587 is actually going to be. 00:05:14.670 --> 00:05:18.087 sufficiently challenged are an indicator there. And then the last one, 00:05:18.170 --> 00:05:20.187 number nine, is what I call long duration. 00:05:20.270 --> 00:05:23.070 And this is just your ability to sustain submaximal work 00:05:23.400 --> 00:05:26.777 for a long period of time with no breaks, no reductions whatsoever. 00:05:26.861 --> 00:05:28.999 This is often called steady state training, 00:05:29.082 --> 00:05:33.131 or a lot of people just think of this when they think of, quote-unquote, cardio. 00:05:33.214 --> 00:05:36.953 But your ability to continue movement without any breaks or change or drop 00:05:37.037 --> 00:05:39.226 is the last and final adaptation. So really, 00:05:39.309 --> 00:05:43.080 if you look at kind of a minimal number there, it's generally 20 minutes. 00:05:43.530 --> 00:05:47.060 of what we're looking for, but a more typical would be 20 to 60 minutes. 00:05:47.143 --> 00:05:49.117 But anything past that would still be... 00:05:49.200 --> 00:05:53.350 limited by your long duration endurance, so your ability to sustain work over time. 00:05:54.030 --> 00:05:56.814 I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge our sponsor, 00:05:56.897 --> 00:06:00.459 Eight Sleep. Eight Sleep makes smart mattress covers with cooling, heating, 00:06:00.542 --> 00:06:04.103 and sleep tracking capacity. One of the best ways to ensure you get a great 00:06:04.187 --> 00:06:07.942 night's sleep is to make sure that the temperature of your sleeping environment 00:06:08.026 --> 00:06:11.733 is correct. 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Again, that's 8sleep.com slash Huberman to save 00:07:10.246 --> 00:07:11.079 up to $350. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:16.745 Can you walk us through the nine different adaptations that you mentioned earlier 00:07:16.829 --> 00:07:21.240 and give us a way to assess our level of adaptation in each of those nine? 00:07:21.330 --> 00:07:24.472 All right, the very first one we want to talk about is movement skill. 00:07:24.555 --> 00:07:27.517 This is really about human movement so that you stay injury-free. 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:29.933 And you can continue to train for as long as possible. 00:07:30.017 --> 00:07:33.157 So what are the minimum requirements? Now, if you can have access... 00:07:33.240 --> 00:07:37.000 to a highly qualified physical therapist or movement specialist. 00:07:37.440 --> 00:07:41.452 That's the best route. Go to them, have them identify all of your movement 00:07:41.536 --> 00:07:45.106 patterns, overhead pressing, squatting, running, all these things. 00:07:45.189 --> 00:07:49.340 That's your gold standard. If you want to do it yourself, though, here's... 00:07:49.470 --> 00:07:51.750 A very simple four-step solution. 00:07:52.140 --> 00:07:55.346 So the way that I teach this is I go joint by joint. 00:07:55.429 --> 00:07:59.963 And so I think of this just as the major ones, your shoulder, your elbow, 00:08:00.046 --> 00:08:02.257 your low back, hip, knee and ankle. 00:08:02.340 --> 00:08:05.853 Okay, now what you can do is do a representative movement for you. 00:08:05.937 --> 00:08:09.886 So if you bench a lot, use the bench. If you do pull-ups, use the pull-up. 00:08:09.969 --> 00:08:13.620 If you squat, do that. I would recommend doing an upper body press. 00:08:14.070 --> 00:08:15.337 an upper body pull, 00:08:15.420 --> 00:08:19.620 a lower body press and lower body pull. An example would be a push-up. 00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:23.141 a pull-up or a bent row, a squat, and then a deadlift, 00:08:23.224 --> 00:08:28.120 and record a frontal view and a side view. Probably do three to ten repetitions. 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:33.425 per angle. Okay. Slow and uncontrolled. And you want to look for four key things. 00:08:33.508 --> 00:08:36.000 Number one is you want to look for symmetry. 00:08:36.180 --> 00:08:38.387 So symmetry is front to back, left to right, 00:08:38.471 --> 00:08:42.136 and your right limb and your left limb. If they aren't moving perfectly, 00:08:42.219 --> 00:08:46.353 that's fine. But you want to see, is one moving further ahead than the other one? 00:08:46.436 --> 00:08:49.820 Is one turning to the side and one's not? Is one fidgeting and... 00:08:50.010 --> 00:08:53.437 and twitching around differently. So you want to look just to check... 00:08:53.520 --> 00:08:56.196 to see and make sure that they're stable. Number two, 00:08:56.279 --> 00:09:00.204 you want to look for stability. So key indicators here are things like if you 00:09:00.288 --> 00:09:04.317 can't control a squat, a controlled squat where your knees don't start shaking, 00:09:04.400 --> 00:09:07.940 that would be an instability issue. So can you do the movement slow? 00:09:08.280 --> 00:09:11.835 Can you pause at the bottom, maybe three seconds, maybe five seconds or ten? 00:09:11.918 --> 00:09:15.377 You should have complete control of that movement and all of these joints. 00:09:15.460 --> 00:09:17.866 Are your hips sliding to one side when you stand up? 00:09:17.950 --> 00:09:21.600 Is one elbow closer to your body when you're benching and the other one's more 00:09:21.684 --> 00:09:24.584 flared out? These are the things I'm talking about, right? 00:09:24.780 --> 00:09:27.684 I'm not worried about what angle they should be at or not. 00:09:27.767 --> 00:09:30.600 You're simply looking for asymmetries or instabilities. 00:09:31.170 --> 00:09:32.818 All right, so again, as you're pushing up, 00:09:32.901 --> 00:09:36.097 does one elbow start flipping and twitching and going all over the place? 00:09:36.180 --> 00:09:40.531 The third one is what I call awareness. There are a lot of movement technique 00:09:40.614 --> 00:09:43.936 issues that are simply people don't know. And so you'll watch them squat. 00:09:44.019 --> 00:09:47.677 I do this in my classes all the time. I'll have 100 kids out there squatting. 00:09:47.760 --> 00:09:49.498 and you'll see some horrible squat technique. 00:09:49.581 --> 00:09:52.897 And then when you just tell them, hey, did you realize your heels are supposed to be 00:09:52.980 --> 00:09:55.567 on the ground at all times when you squat? They're like, oh, okay. 00:09:55.651 --> 00:09:57.955 And they can correct it. It's not actually a movement flaw. 00:09:58.038 --> 00:09:59.927 It was just simply an awareness. I didn't know. 00:10:00.010 --> 00:10:03.467 and then I actually didn't realize that that was happening in that position. 00:10:03.550 --> 00:10:06.967 So we want all of our joints to be going through a general full range of motion, 00:10:07.050 --> 00:10:10.410 which is number four. So the ankles during like a squat. 00:10:10.730 --> 00:10:12.887 Your knees should be able to go as far over your toes as possible 00:10:12.970 --> 00:10:15.987 while maintaining good position, your feet flat on the floor, 00:10:16.070 --> 00:10:19.410 your three points of contact, your whole flat foot, 00:10:19.730 --> 00:10:21.687 and you're not compromising another joint. 00:10:21.770 --> 00:10:24.127 So that's all you're going to look for, those four things. 00:10:24.210 --> 00:10:29.047 Symmetry, stability, awareness, and range of motion through each joint, 00:10:29.130 --> 00:10:32.127 through each movement. You can generally kind of clear these things 00:10:32.210 --> 00:10:34.287 in one or two repetitions in a couple of seconds. 00:10:34.370 --> 00:10:36.430 I just look for absolutely terrible, 00:10:37.270 --> 00:10:38.470 like can't do it at all, 00:10:38.930 --> 00:10:41.270 minor flaw, or pretty close to good. 00:10:41.510 --> 00:10:42.667 But that's really all I'm looking for. 00:10:42.750 --> 00:10:44.247 So my scoring system is 0, 1, 3. 00:10:44.330 --> 00:10:45.947 Zero is like you're not going to do this exercise 00:10:46.030 --> 00:10:48.150 because you're at a very high acute risk. 00:10:48.270 --> 00:10:50.290 You might get hurt on rep one tomorrow. 00:10:50.530 --> 00:10:52.787 Now your score of one is like, there's a minor flaw here. 00:10:52.870 --> 00:10:56.430 We can probably do it, but we need to be cautious of load and volume. 00:10:56.870 --> 00:10:59.047 The other one is maybe it's perfect, maybe it's not. 00:10:59.130 --> 00:11:02.350 but go ahead and sort of do it on a reasonable protocol. 00:11:02.630 --> 00:11:05.307 You'll be fine. So that's generally what you would need to do 00:11:05.390 --> 00:11:08.747 is a cost-free method of identifying good movement technique 00:11:08.830 --> 00:11:11.070 within any of the things that you would do. 00:11:11.470 --> 00:11:14.787 What about speed? I actually don't think this is one most people should test. 00:11:14.870 --> 00:11:17.567 If you're a high-performance athlete, we can run a 40-yard dash 00:11:17.650 --> 00:11:22.510 or we can do some different things with a velocity transducer on a barbell. 00:11:22.950 --> 00:11:24.267 If you're a weightlifter or something, 00:11:24.350 --> 00:11:27.907 for most people, pure speed is really maximum velocity 00:11:27.990 --> 00:11:31.150 or acceleration or kind of the two ways we break it down. 00:11:31.630 --> 00:11:34.007 It's not just generally not that necessary to test. 00:11:34.090 --> 00:11:36.070 What about number three, power, 00:11:36.330 --> 00:11:39.830 which I believe before you told me was speed times force. 00:11:40.030 --> 00:11:42.790 The cost-free version here is a simple broad jump. 00:11:43.210 --> 00:11:45.410 So this is stand, you know, normal position, 00:11:45.670 --> 00:11:47.747 jump out as far in front of you as you possibly can 00:11:47.830 --> 00:11:49.787 and measure the distance between where you started 00:11:49.870 --> 00:11:51.920 and the back of your heel where it lands. 00:11:52.130 --> 00:11:55.690 A super basic number to look for there is your height. 00:11:56.050 --> 00:11:57.907 So you should be able to broad jump how tall you are. 00:11:57.990 --> 00:12:01.150 If you're 5'5", you should hit 5'5", 6'5", etc. 00:12:01.270 --> 00:12:05.650 That's going to ratchet down a little bit, about 15% for females. 00:12:05.990 --> 00:12:09.307 They just simply don't have the power in general that men have, 00:12:09.390 --> 00:12:11.007 so you're going to want to bring that down a little bit. 00:12:11.090 --> 00:12:12.790 But that's a very crude number. 00:12:12.890 --> 00:12:16.030 If you were to look at like a high-performance NFL player, 00:12:16.530 --> 00:12:20.307 if they're 6 feet tall, they're going to be jumping like 9 to 10 to 11 feet. 00:12:20.390 --> 00:12:22.707 We're not looking for optimization in this particular test. 00:12:22.790 --> 00:12:26.514 What you are looking for red flags if you can jump your body height you going to be 00:12:26.597 --> 00:12:29.862 just fine To clarify there no running approach here You going to stand at 00:12:29.945 --> 00:12:33.669 a still Yeah you can swing bounce as much as you like to do You going to projectile 00:12:33.752 --> 00:12:37.247 off So you going to measure the distance from the tip of your toe So basically 00:12:37.330 --> 00:12:42.306 stand behind the line and then the furthest point back where you land. 00:12:42.390 --> 00:12:43.897 So basically the worst 00:12:43.980 --> 00:12:47.301 possible score, not the best possible because your feet won't land 00:12:47.384 --> 00:12:48.797 symmetrically. One's probably 00:12:48.880 --> 00:12:53.748 going to be a little bit farther. Just use the furthest point back of your back heel 00:12:53.832 --> 00:12:57.197 and go from there. What about strength? So strength is really important. 00:12:57.280 --> 00:12:58.877 You need to measure this in multiple 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:01.949 areas. And we'll start off with grip strength. You can do this in two ways. 00:13:02.033 --> 00:13:02.687 You can buy a hand 00:13:02.770 --> 00:13:07.035 grip dynamometer. Now, these are anywhere between $20 to $100 anywhere. 00:13:07.118 --> 00:13:10.757 These actually used to be, like when I was in school, like hundreds of dollars. 00:13:10.840 --> 00:13:11.967 And now you can literally buy them 00:13:12.050 --> 00:13:15.224 on any website for $25. So technically, that's not cost-free. 00:13:15.308 --> 00:13:16.987 I know your whole thing about the 00:13:17.070 --> 00:13:20.810 cost-free protocols, but $25, I'm calling that basically cost-free. 00:13:20.893 --> 00:13:22.237 You can bring that in and 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:24.688 test that and that's just a little device where you're going to squeeze and you're 00:13:24.771 --> 00:13:25.017 going to do 00:13:25.100 --> 00:13:27.732 and i would do your right hand and your left hand they're going to give you 00:13:27.816 --> 00:13:28.457 a value in kilograms 00:13:28.540 --> 00:13:33.496 you want to look for something like a minimum score here of 40 kilograms ideally 00:13:33.579 --> 00:13:34.567 you're up past 60 00:13:34.650 --> 00:13:37.974 would be a really good spot to be in you want to make sure that there's no less 00:13:38.057 --> 00:13:38.707 than 10 variation 00:13:38.790 --> 00:13:42.225 between your left and right hand your non-dominant hand actually shouldn't be 00:13:42.309 --> 00:13:42.957 that much weaker 00:13:43.040 --> 00:13:46.664 in this test so what you'll actually see a lot of times is the non-dominant can be 00:13:46.748 --> 00:13:47.117 oftentimes 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:51.533 stronger because the dominant hand is more for movement precision writing things like 00:13:51.616 --> 00:13:55.509 that if If you are a male and you're under 40 kilograms on a hand grip dynamometer, 00:13:55.592 --> 00:13:57.292 we're going to need to train that. 00:13:57.480 --> 00:13:59.728 If you're a female, it's not that much lower, 00:13:59.812 --> 00:14:02.037 but about 35 kilograms is the cutoff point. 00:14:02.120 --> 00:14:04.517 Another one that you can actually do is just a dead hang. 00:14:04.600 --> 00:14:08.930 So you can hold on to any bar, ideally one that is thin enough to where you can wrap 00:14:09.014 --> 00:14:10.377 your whole hand around it. 00:14:10.460 --> 00:14:14.513 Something like going to the gym and jumping on any pull-up bar or pull-up 00:14:14.597 --> 00:14:14.797 rack. 00:14:14.880 --> 00:14:20.118 In general, we should be able to hang for a minimum of 30 seconds is what we're 00:14:20.202 --> 00:14:20.927 looking for. 00:14:21.010 --> 00:14:26.750 30 to kind of 50 seconds is my like good, but we could probably get better here. 00:14:27.030 --> 00:14:30.270 If you're cruising above 60 seconds, I'm generally pretty happy. 00:14:30.620 --> 00:14:34.630 Now, if you are exceptionally large, this thing doesn't scale perfectly. 00:14:35.130 --> 00:14:38.168 You know, if you're 240 pounds and even if you're lean, 00:14:38.251 --> 00:14:40.860 it's just hard to hang and hold 240 pounds. 00:14:41.300 --> 00:14:44.049 Conversely, if you're 145 pounds, even if you're unhealthy, 00:14:44.132 --> 00:14:46.157 you're going to be able to hang for a long time. 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:47.427 It's just not that much weight to carry. 00:14:47.510 --> 00:14:50.450 So just rough numbers to start off with. 00:14:51.010 --> 00:14:54.927 I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge our sponsor, AG1. 00:14:55.010 --> 00:15:00.041 AG1 just launched their newest formulation called AG1 Pro And right now you can get 00:15:00.124 --> 00:15:04.662 an extra 20 off your first subscription AG1 takes the clinically backed AG1 00:15:04.745 --> 00:15:09.120 formula which is a blend of vitamins minerals probiotics and adaptogens 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:13.877 and adds three important new ingredients, creatine monohydrate, calcium HMB, 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:15.080 and zinc carnosine. 00:15:15.340 --> 00:15:18.314 It has five grams of creatine monohydrate to support muscle strength 00:15:18.397 --> 00:15:20.317 and performance, along with brain health. 00:15:20.400 --> 00:15:23.997 Calcium HMB to support muscle recovery and reduce muscle breakdown. 00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:27.580 and zinc carnosine to support and improve the lining of your gut. 00:15:28.100 --> 00:15:31.522 Some of these ingredients I personally was already taking separate from the AG1 00:15:31.605 --> 00:15:35.820 formula. So it's great to see all three of them now in the new AG1 Pro. 00:15:36.100 --> 00:15:40.417 As you may know, I've been taking AG1 every single day for about 14 years now. 00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:43.521 That means I discovered it and started taking it daily long before I even knew 00:15:43.604 --> 00:15:44.277 what a podcast was. 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:48.768 I continue to take it and back it here on the podcast because it is an excellent 00:15:48.851 --> 00:15:52.237 formula. And it's now even better with the AG1 Pro formula. 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:57.536 For a limited time, you can get an extra 20% off your first subscription to AG1 Pro 00:15:57.619 --> 00:16:02.257 by going to drinkag1.com slash Huberman and using the code BACKTOROUTINE. 00:16:02.340 --> 00:16:05.080 So that's with a numeral 2, BACK, numeral 2, ROUTINE. 00:16:05.280 --> 00:16:08.540 Just go to drinkag1.com slash Huberman. 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:12.097 So that's grip strength. What about strength elsewhere in the body? 00:16:12.180 --> 00:16:14.517 You can do an upper body strength test if you would like, 00:16:14.600 --> 00:16:17.217 although it's not technically something we do very often. 00:16:17.300 --> 00:16:19.897 One I'm generally more interested in is a leg extension test. 00:16:19.980 --> 00:16:23.420 And the reason I like this is a back squat is better. 00:16:23.540 --> 00:16:26.540 A barbell back squat is, look, that's my jam. 00:16:26.660 --> 00:16:29.660 That's my life, right? It's just very technically demanding. 00:16:29.980 --> 00:16:32.200 And it's challenging. You need spotters. 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:34.397 You need comfort. A lot goes into this. 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:38.030 So for the average person, a leg extension test is fairly standardized. 00:16:38.680 --> 00:16:39.897 You don't have to worry about technique. 00:16:39.980 --> 00:16:41.577 And people can just get into it and go. 00:16:41.660 --> 00:16:45.217 And so what you want to look for there is a couple of standards you want to hit. 00:16:45.300 --> 00:16:47.657 Again, a very simple answer here is body weight. 00:16:47.740 --> 00:16:50.190 can you do a leg extension with your body weight? 00:16:50.440 --> 00:16:52.097 That's a pretty good number you want to be at. 00:16:52.180 --> 00:16:57.157 If you go up an age past age 40, every decade that can come down about 10% 00:16:57.240 --> 00:16:59.237 and you'll still be in a pretty good slot. 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:03.080 So if you're 50 years old and you're 170 pounds, 00:17:03.620 --> 00:17:06.397 if you can do 160, you're in a pretty good sort of spot. 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:10.500 And then you can just, again, take it down about 10% every decade after 40. 00:17:10.740 --> 00:17:12.140 Any of these strength tests, 00:17:12.500 --> 00:17:15.437 they don't have to be done to a technical true one rep max. 00:17:15.520 --> 00:17:18.470 You can use what are called repetition conversion equation. 00:17:18.580 --> 00:17:23.107 So put on a load that you think is kind of close to your maximum and just do it 00:17:23.190 --> 00:17:24.537 for as many reps as you can. 00:17:24.620 --> 00:17:28.710 As long as it under five reps total you can then actually go online and enter 00:17:28.793 --> 00:17:32.937 that into any number of calculators anywhere And it will tell you okay you did 00:17:33.020 --> 00:17:34.700 three repetitions at 200 pounds 00:17:35.420 --> 00:17:38.740 Your one rep max is probably 215, whatever. 00:17:38.860 --> 00:17:39.837 So there's estimate equations. 00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:42.929 So if you don't want to spend the time or you're not truly comfortable, 00:17:43.013 --> 00:17:45.137 like absolutely going to your true one rep max, 00:17:45.220 --> 00:17:48.917 just get to a number that's fairly close and do as many as you can and then go 00:17:49.001 --> 00:17:52.537 online. Again, one rep max estimator equations are everywhere. 00:17:52.620 --> 00:17:57.725 If you get past five repetitions or so, the accuracy of those equations starts 00:17:57.808 --> 00:18:01.598 going down. So don't put on something and go, I did 12 reps of it, 00:18:01.681 --> 00:18:03.697 and then try to figure out what you're wondering max. 00:18:03.780 --> 00:18:04.457 It'll get close. 00:18:04.540 --> 00:18:07.181 You start moving past that, you're just getting worse and worse and worse 00:18:07.264 --> 00:18:09.464 accuracy. If neither of those are an option. 00:18:09.560 --> 00:18:14.800 Another one I like a lot here is simply a front squat or a goblet squat hold. 00:18:15.060 --> 00:18:17.151 So you're going to hold a weight in front of your chest, 00:18:17.234 --> 00:18:19.437 whether a kettlebell is great here, a dumbbell is fine here. 00:18:19.520 --> 00:18:22.320 and you want to hold about half of your body weight, 00:18:22.560 --> 00:18:26.497 go all the way to the bottom position and try to hold that for about 45 seconds. 00:18:26.580 --> 00:18:30.020 So it's a pretty good indicator of number one, your position. 00:18:30.360 --> 00:18:32.617 It's hard to be in a bad position for that long at that load 00:18:32.700 --> 00:18:35.140 as well as core strength and low back stability. 00:18:35.300 --> 00:18:38.477 It's more difficult than leg extension, but it's quite a bit more functional 00:18:38.560 --> 00:18:42.497 and it's going to give you insight into a lot more areas than just the quadriceps. 00:18:42.580 --> 00:18:45.057 So 45 seconds down at the bottom of the squat 00:18:45.140 --> 00:18:47.117 and then returning to a standing position. 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:48.737 Yep. And if you can't do the return, 00:18:48.820 --> 00:18:52.661 I actually I'm not that worried but as long as you can hold that good position 00:18:52.744 --> 00:18:53.617 without a technical 00:18:53.700 --> 00:18:57.719 breakdown in that 45 seconds that's a really good spot as an intro I want 00:18:57.803 --> 00:18:59.237 a third of your body weight 00:18:59.320 --> 00:19:03.445 for 30 seconds it's important to add a couple of caveats to the strength training 00:19:03.529 --> 00:19:04.277 stuff so there's 00:19:04.360 --> 00:19:08.737 two that I want to do number one these are assuming you are technically proficient so 00:19:08.820 --> 00:19:09.577 I don't want you 00:19:09.660 --> 00:19:14.743 to do any exercise to exhaustion or to maximum strength if you're not comfortable 00:19:14.826 --> 00:19:15.317 with your 00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:19.028 technique. So adjust these accordingly. If you're not comfortable with the front 00:19:19.111 --> 00:19:19.817 squat, do the leg 00:19:19.900 --> 00:19:22.505 extension. If you're not even comfortable with that, do something different. 00:19:22.588 --> 00:19:23.177 So we never want to 00:19:23.260 --> 00:19:28.856 utilize maximum testing if it's going to come with a consequence of serious acute 00:19:28.939 --> 00:19:29.557 injury. So 00:19:29.640 --> 00:19:34.990 that's the most important flag. The second one is your warmup protocol will have 00:19:35.073 --> 00:19:38.270 a huge effect on your actual results. And so whenever you do these tests, 00:19:38.353 --> 00:19:39.797 especially if you're going to do a test 00:19:39.880 --> 00:19:43.277 and then a test again down the line, you want to make sure that that warmup 00:19:43.360 --> 00:19:46.020 protocol is standardized. What about hypertrophy? 00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:51.195 So the thing you want to pay attention to here is you have the aesthetic portion 00:19:51.278 --> 00:19:53.378 of hypertrophy. That's entirely up to you. 00:19:53.760 --> 00:19:54.777 There is no rationale. 00:19:54.860 --> 00:19:57.197 You can decide what you feel like looks good or doesn't look good. 00:19:57.280 --> 00:19:58.180 That's irrelevant. 00:19:58.620 --> 00:19:59.937 There is a sufficient rationale. 00:20:00.020 --> 00:20:03.927 you need to have where below that is detrimental to your health. 00:20:04.010 --> 00:20:08.138 regardless of your outcomes and so the best way to do this is a couple of ways 00:20:08.221 --> 00:20:12.241 any sort of body composition test can do this so whether this is a um a scan 00:20:12.324 --> 00:20:16.560 through like a dexa scan which is a gold standard or other ways of bioelectrical 00:20:16.643 --> 00:20:20.879 impedance or other ways so there's a ton of different tests you can get that are 00:20:20.962 --> 00:20:26.190 pretty close So what you want to pay attention to when you get like a DEXA scan 00:20:26.840 --> 00:20:29.855 is a number called FFMI. And so that stands for Fat-Free Mass Index. 00:20:29.939 --> 00:20:32.590 So you can look at, again, any number of online calculators. 00:20:32.673 --> 00:20:36.098 These are all standard. So it doesn't actually matter where you pull them up. 00:20:36.182 --> 00:20:37.782 You don't have to worry about... 00:20:38.090 --> 00:20:41.226 looking it up and whether or not it's right or not or something. 00:20:41.310 --> 00:20:45.050 And so that's going to actually tell you if you have sufficient muscle math. 00:20:45.133 --> 00:20:49.175 And so a number you want to look for in general is something like if you're a man, 00:20:49.258 --> 00:20:51.170 your FFMI should be something like 20. 00:20:51.290 --> 00:20:55.365 or higher. If you're a woman, you want to look for something like 18. 00:20:55.448 --> 00:20:59.222 So those are the targets. If you get past like 24, 25 for a man, 00:20:59.305 --> 00:21:03.199 that's a lot of muscle mass, assuming you're reasonably lean. Now, 00:21:03.283 --> 00:21:04.970 if your FFMI is like 24, 25, 00:21:05.780 --> 00:21:07.920 but your body fat is like 40%, 00:21:08.150 --> 00:21:11.911 you're actually just a very, very large individual. You're not in a great spot. 00:21:11.994 --> 00:21:15.901 So when we say these sort of numbers, it's the assumption that you're probably sub 00:21:15.984 --> 00:21:19.925 30% body fat for a man and sub 35 for a woman. So those are the numbers. 00:21:20.009 --> 00:21:24.194 There are online calculators. All you really need to know is your total body 00:21:24.277 --> 00:21:27.273 weight. your body fat percentage, and then your height. 00:21:27.356 --> 00:21:30.772 You can enter those three numbers, and then they'll tell you your FFMI score, 00:21:30.855 --> 00:21:34.453 and it'll correct for an adjusted value. And most of those will actually tell you 00:21:34.537 --> 00:21:37.524 the grading rubric. And then it's a good average, bad, et cetera. 00:21:37.608 --> 00:21:39.458 But those are the numbers we look at. 00:21:39.860 --> 00:21:43.740 If you are, as a man... Sub-17 00:21:43.850 --> 00:21:48.856 As a woman, sub-15. Now we're in an area of pretty severe physiological detriment 00:21:48.940 --> 00:21:52.312 for insufficient muscle. What about muscular endurance? 00:21:52.396 --> 00:21:56.145 Is this where you're going to tell me I need to do wall sits? 00:21:56.229 --> 00:22:01.107 So this is really nice. You can do any number of tests here. A standard plank. 00:22:01.190 --> 00:22:03.814 Can you hold a front plank for 60 seconds? 00:22:03.898 --> 00:22:08.520 Can you hold a side plank for 45 seconds? If you're able to do a push-up. 00:22:08.603 --> 00:22:11.872 We want to be able to do, again, for a general male, 00:22:11.956 --> 00:22:14.997 we should have no problem doing 25 plus pushups. 00:22:15.080 --> 00:22:17.207 consecutive push-ups. This would be a full, 00:22:17.290 --> 00:22:21.268 complete lockout of the elbows on the top and a full chest touch or close to it 00:22:21.351 --> 00:22:24.609 at the ground. You can do it different. It doesn't really matter, 00:22:24.692 --> 00:22:26.922 but just keep it standard from your pre-test, 00:22:27.005 --> 00:22:30.314 your post-test if you're trying to mark progress. And for females? 00:22:30.398 --> 00:22:33.758 So for those folks, that's going to scale down a little bit, right? 00:22:33.842 --> 00:22:37.613 So basically you're looking at 15 is that marker, like 25 was for the male, 00:22:37.697 --> 00:22:40.389 where I want to see above 15. And if I do, we're good. 00:22:40.473 --> 00:22:42.580 Anything between 5 to 15 is the number of 00:22:45.080 --> 00:22:48.057 we generally have some problems, and if that is... 00:22:48.140 --> 00:22:50.300 difference between 1 and 0, then 00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:53.940 Like now zero is a problem. So we should be able to do that. 00:22:54.110 --> 00:22:58.625 The other way to assess muscular endurance is take the exact strength test you did 00:22:58.708 --> 00:23:02.690 from the talk five minutes ago. Which one did you do? Load that to 75%. 00:23:03.020 --> 00:23:05.471 And then do that for as many repetitions as you can. 00:23:05.554 --> 00:23:07.304 And that is a tremendous barometer. 00:23:07.910 --> 00:23:11.797 of muscular endurance. So if you were able to do 200 pounds on your leg extension 00:23:11.881 --> 00:23:14.641 test, put 75% on that and do that as many reps as you can. 00:23:14.724 --> 00:23:17.043 You want to look for more than eight repetitions. 00:23:17.126 --> 00:23:21.026 If you are below eight repetitions, then we have a muscular endurance problem. 00:23:22.520 --> 00:23:25.228 anaerobic capacity. This one's more challenging. 00:23:25.311 --> 00:23:29.647 You either have to go to a laboratory and do something like a windgate test. 00:23:29.731 --> 00:23:34.474 So this is a 30 second maximal test where you're going to see how much work can you 00:23:34.557 --> 00:23:36.360 possibly do in that 30 seconds. 00:23:36.650 --> 00:23:38.775 If you don't have a loudestestor laboratory, 00:23:38.858 --> 00:23:42.087 you can do this on any protocol you want. This could be sprinting. 00:23:42.170 --> 00:23:44.830 This can be on an air bike. This could be on a rower. 00:23:45.320 --> 00:23:48.639 Anything like that, anything where you can exert maximal effort and you don't have 00:23:48.723 --> 00:23:49.973 to worry about technical. 00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:53.574 Problems. So I generally don't like to do things like a kettlebell swing 00:23:53.658 --> 00:23:56.517 or something like that. There's just too many other variables. 00:23:56.601 --> 00:23:59.081 You need to be able to go as hard as you possibly can, 00:23:59.164 --> 00:24:01.814 knowing you're going to get to a place of tremendous. 00:24:02.210 --> 00:24:05.630 fatigue. Now in the lab we often use what's called a Bosco. 00:24:06.050 --> 00:24:08.682 protocol, and you're going to stand on a force plate, 00:24:08.765 --> 00:24:12.011 and you're going to do as many vertical jumps as fast as you can, 00:24:12.095 --> 00:24:15.648 as high as you can, for 60 seconds, and you're absolutely destroyed by, 00:24:15.732 --> 00:24:16.857 like, second 45. Right? 00:24:16.940 --> 00:24:21.467 So we either use that Wingate Protocol or that BOSCO Protocol. If you want, 00:24:21.551 --> 00:24:25.760 though, again, take any of those other places – 30 seconds or so. 00:24:26.360 --> 00:24:28.864 up to 45 seconds, up to a minute if you want. It doesn't really matter. 00:24:28.947 --> 00:24:31.617 We don't really have standards for these things because it's going to be... 00:24:31.700 --> 00:24:37.121 different how far you can travel in 30 seconds on a treadmill is going to be so 00:24:37.205 --> 00:24:41.515 different than sprinting in the field or on the assault bike or whatever. 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:45.290 So what you really want to worry about there is can you complete it? 00:24:45.710 --> 00:24:48.718 And then how awful do you feel afterwards? 00:24:48.802 --> 00:24:54.470 So what you really want to think about here is not those protocols, but this. 00:24:55.220 --> 00:24:58.920 You want to think about can you get close to your predicted goals? 00:24:59.120 --> 00:25:05.007 Maximum heart rate. So the number we throw out is 220 minus your age. 00:25:05.090 --> 00:25:09.486 So if you're 50 years old, 220 minus 50, you should be able to get to a maximum 00:25:09.569 --> 00:25:11.950 heart rate of around 170 beats per minute. 00:25:12.170 --> 00:25:14.590 Now, that number is extremely generic. 00:25:15.350 --> 00:25:18.703 If you don't get there, that doesn't have any indication of your fitness. 00:25:18.786 --> 00:25:21.386 If you get higher, that doesn't mean you're any more fit. 00:25:21.469 --> 00:25:24.775 It's just a rough number. So here's what I want you to do. In this case, 00:25:24.858 --> 00:25:26.358 your heart rate recovery is... 00:25:26.480 --> 00:25:29.980 is the better metric. So I want you to get up to a maximum heart rate, 00:25:30.140 --> 00:25:34.233 and then test your heart rate recovery. And what you should be looking for there 00:25:34.316 --> 00:25:38.513 is about half a beat recovery per second. You're gonna get up to a place where you 00:25:38.596 --> 00:25:42.720 reach like absolute terrible exhaustion, maximum fatigue, test your heart rate, 00:25:43.430 --> 00:25:47.450 And then count, right? Have a timer going. Within 60 seconds... 00:25:47.900 --> 00:25:50.160 You should have, again, that half a beat per second. 00:25:50.244 --> 00:25:52.910 You should have a heart rate recovery of 30 beats per minute. 00:25:52.993 --> 00:25:54.117 Within the next minute... 00:25:54.200 --> 00:25:56.591 So two-minute recovery, it should be in half that, so 60 beats. 00:25:56.674 --> 00:25:59.997 Those are rough numbers to go by, and your three-minute recovery is, again, 00:26:00.080 --> 00:26:02.498 half of that again. So that is the closest way. 00:26:02.582 --> 00:26:05.000 If your heart rate recovery is worse than that, 00:26:05.083 --> 00:26:09.258 then we know we have a problem in your anaerobic capacity or your cardiovascular 00:26:09.341 --> 00:26:11.110 capacity. What about number eight? 00:26:11.390 --> 00:26:14.935 maximal heart rate because what you just described sounds a lot like maximal heart 00:26:15.019 --> 00:26:18.431 rate. So this is your VO2 max. So the gold standard here is to actually go into 00:26:18.515 --> 00:26:19.348 a laboratory. 00:26:19.880 --> 00:26:23.505 and get this thing done. So we can actually run a VO2 max test where you put 00:26:23.589 --> 00:26:25.917 a mask on, collect all your gases, and run new... 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:29.924 And there's a very specific protocol for completion of a true maximum test, 00:26:30.007 --> 00:26:33.931 and any of the scientists will know that. If you don't have access to that, 00:26:34.015 --> 00:26:36.900 you can do a couple of tests. One of them is called... 00:26:37.310 --> 00:26:39.730 A 12-minute Cooper's test. So this is simply time. 00:26:39.813 --> 00:26:42.383 You're going to run for 12 minutes as far as you can, 00:26:42.466 --> 00:26:45.337 and you're going to record the distance you covered. Again, 00:26:45.420 --> 00:26:48.891 you can go online to any number of calculators, enter that distance in, 00:26:48.974 --> 00:26:51.194 and that will tell you your estimated VO2 max. 00:26:51.277 --> 00:26:53.630 So that's a 12-minute sprint? 12-minute sprint. 00:26:54.230 --> 00:26:56.697 Maximum distance you can cover in 12 minutes. 00:26:56.780 --> 00:26:59.643 So that's anywhere between a mile to two plus miles, 00:26:59.727 --> 00:27:03.780 depending on how fat you are. But you just do that Cooper 12-minute test. 00:27:03.863 --> 00:27:05.450 If you want, you can do a... 00:27:05.570 --> 00:27:10.127 little gentler version of that. In fact, there is a one-mile walk test you can do. 00:27:10.210 --> 00:27:14.711 In this case, you have to have some sort of either a stopwatch or ideally a heart 00:27:14.794 --> 00:27:18.237 rate monitor. And all you have to do is, this is a rock bar one mile walk. 00:27:18.320 --> 00:27:21.865 So maximal tests, you're going to walk a mile, record the time, 00:27:21.949 --> 00:27:26.646 record your heart rate at the end, enter those in and those will give you estimates 00:27:26.730 --> 00:27:29.411 of your BC max. So that's the like, oh, my gosh, 00:27:29.494 --> 00:27:34.137 I can't run for 12 minutes as hard as I possibly can or I don't want to do it or. 00:27:34.220 --> 00:27:36.639 We have a lot of these in our executive program. It's like, 00:27:36.722 --> 00:27:39.897 my knee hurts too bad. I've got back pain when I run or whatever. Can I... 00:27:39.980 --> 00:27:43.552 Okay, and you did the walk test. And it's pretty accurate if you do it correctly. 00:27:43.635 --> 00:27:45.357 And again, those are all standard... 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:48.693 calculations so anywhere you find those you don't have to worry about the source 00:27:48.777 --> 00:27:51.863 so you just enter your stuff in and they're going to be running off the same 00:27:51.946 --> 00:27:56.085 equation I'd like to take a quick break to acknowledge one of our sponsors, 00:27:56.169 --> 00:28:00.002 David. David makes protein bars unlike any other. Their newest bar, 00:28:00.086 --> 00:28:03.452 the Bronze Bar, has 20 grams of protein, only 150 calories, 00:28:03.535 --> 00:28:08.071 and zero grams of sugar. I have to say, these are the best tasting protein bars 00:28:08.154 --> 00:28:11.988 I've ever had. And I've tried a lot of protein bars over the years. 00:28:12.071 --> 00:28:14.619 These new David bars have a marshmallow base, 00:28:14.702 --> 00:28:19.062 and they're covered in chocolate coating. 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Right now, 00:28:56.608 --> 00:28:59.676 David is offering a deal where if you buy four cartons, 00:28:59.760 --> 00:29:04.317 you get the fifth carton for free. You can also find David on Amazon or in stores 00:29:04.401 --> 00:29:06.781 such as Target, Walmart, and Kroger. Again, 00:29:06.865 --> 00:29:10.990 to get the fifth carton for free, go to davidprotein.com slash Huberman. 00:29:11.750 --> 00:29:15.578 Number nine, long duration, steady state exercise. Yep. 00:29:15.661 --> 00:29:18.790 So you really want to think about this as... 00:29:19.070 --> 00:29:23.376 Not a standard number. This is you should maintain consistent work output for over 00:29:23.460 --> 00:29:27.605 20 plus minutes. And this one, I want you to just pick something that it was in 00:29:27.689 --> 00:29:31.299 your lifestyle. So is there a loop around your house that you can do? 00:29:31.382 --> 00:29:34.029 Is there some protocol that you like to use it for? 00:29:34.113 --> 00:29:36.438 And you're simply going to test your ability. 00:29:36.521 --> 00:29:40.239 Can you maintain work without stopping? That's all it needs to be. Now, 00:29:40.322 --> 00:29:42.410 ideally, you're going to have to do it. 00:29:42.650 --> 00:29:44.733 I personally like to throw a little twist in here, which is, 00:29:44.816 --> 00:29:47.404 can you do this with nasal breathing only? That's when I feel really good. 00:29:47.487 --> 00:29:50.217 If you can go 30 straight minutes without needing to take a break, 00:29:50.300 --> 00:29:53.680 Walking doesn't really cut it unless you're very, very unfit. 00:29:53.930 --> 00:29:58.443 in which case if walking 30 minutes without a break is a challenge, okay, 00:29:58.526 --> 00:29:59.917 I can't. there. 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.619 I want you moving at a non-walking pace. I don't care what zone this is, two, 00:30:04.702 --> 00:30:09.443 three, four, five, I don't care. Show me you can maintain minimum of 20 minutes 00:30:09.527 --> 00:30:12.580 of work with no breaks, no intervals, no downtime. 00:30:13.260 --> 00:30:15.910 And again, ideally, breathing through your nose only. 00:30:16.140 --> 00:30:19.531 How often should we be assessing our fitness for each and every one of these? 00:30:19.614 --> 00:30:23.141 Well, the way that I would say this is I would recommend doing this full battery 00:30:23.224 --> 00:30:26.074 once a year. Now, you could do these technically all in two days. 00:30:26.157 --> 00:30:29.368 A three-day split here is probably best. So if you were to just say, hey, 00:30:29.451 --> 00:30:33.203 this is like testing week. I actually love this for beginning of the year or whenever 00:30:33.287 --> 00:30:36.227 it is that you sort of change your training. Just like once a year, 00:30:36.310 --> 00:30:39.024 you should probably go to a physician and get full blood work. 00:30:39.108 --> 00:30:42.724 You're going to be thinking, yeah, but I don't want to like give up on my exercise 00:30:42.808 --> 00:30:43.708 routine that week. 00:30:46.140 --> 00:30:49.246 think, I didn't do very much work this week. It's going to feel great. 00:30:49.330 --> 00:30:52.755 And then you're going to have a very nice barometer of exactly where you need 00:30:52.838 --> 00:30:56.126 to change and prioritize your training for the next quarter or half a year 00:30:56.210 --> 00:30:57.560 or wherever you want to go. 00:30:58.740 --> 00:31:02.536 Which order to do them in? The non-fatiguing tests you can do whenever. 00:31:02.619 --> 00:31:06.470 The FFMI, the body fat composition, all this stuff can be done wherever. 00:31:06.553 --> 00:31:08.520 I generally like to do that, though. 00:31:08.700 --> 00:31:13.440 as your very first activity. The reason is we know that acute exercise is 00:31:13.830 --> 00:31:17.398 It can heavily influence things like body composition measurements because 00:31:17.482 --> 00:31:21.395 of inflammation, water storage, etc. So it's easiest to just sort of get that off 00:31:21.479 --> 00:31:25.293 of a 48-hour rest. You want to make sure you don't do any hard exercise the day 00:31:25.377 --> 00:31:28.501 before a body composition test and probably 48 hours before that. 00:31:28.584 --> 00:31:30.434 So just start yourself off with that. 00:31:31.140 --> 00:31:35.409 Your movement test can be the same thing. You don't want to try to do an assessment 00:31:35.492 --> 00:31:36.960 of how well you're squatting 00:31:37.080 --> 00:31:40.090 if you're incredibly sore from your brutal squatting test. 00:31:40.173 --> 00:31:42.970 So tend to do those things when you're the most fresh. 00:31:43.053 --> 00:31:46.657 Then what you want to do is any skill or maximum strength or power – 00:31:46.740 --> 00:31:51.037 goes at the very beginning of the day, Any fatiguing thing happens at the end. 00:31:51.120 --> 00:31:55.417 And so you could easily do this. All right, I'm going to... 00:31:55.500 --> 00:31:59.670 Do my power test, my broad jump. You're not going to be fatigued at all from that. 00:31:59.754 --> 00:32:02.575 And on the same day, since I'm already pretty warmed up, 00:32:02.659 --> 00:32:05.407 now I'm going to roll right into my leg strength test. 00:32:05.490 --> 00:32:08.977 And since I'm really warmed up, I'm going to do my leg muscular endurance test. 00:32:09.060 --> 00:32:11.718 Right there. So this is a very common strategy we use. 00:32:11.802 --> 00:32:15.018 We do our one rep max leg extension, five minutes, seven minutes, 00:32:15.102 --> 00:32:17.587 whatever we need to do, come back, load it to 75%. 00:32:17.670 --> 00:32:19.020 Do as many reps as you can. 00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:22.742 Boom. You could roll right into then your upper body test or your grip strength test 00:32:22.825 --> 00:32:24.475 or anything else that you want to do there. 00:32:24.558 --> 00:32:27.847 So you can knock out your strength testing and muscular endurance testing. 00:32:27.930 --> 00:32:30.703 all in one day. You can do your performance diagnostic, 00:32:30.787 --> 00:32:34.079 your power jump test, your strength, and your muscular endurance, 00:32:34.162 --> 00:32:38.338 and all that stuff is knocked out. You're going to have to come back on a separate 00:32:38.421 --> 00:32:41.070 day and do your anaerobic test. This is 30 seconds. 00:32:41.550 --> 00:32:46.210 Max Monders things like that you could though if you wanted Do that after. 00:32:46.710 --> 00:32:49.250 Your long duration test. Your long duration test, again, 00:32:49.334 --> 00:32:51.499 is just going to function as like a big warm-up. 00:32:51.582 --> 00:32:54.778 Or you could flip those things, or you could do them on separate days. 00:32:54.862 --> 00:32:57.112 You're going to have to do your VO2 max test. 00:32:57.240 --> 00:33:00.603 on its own day for the most part, unless you wanted to do, again, 00:33:00.686 --> 00:33:04.155 your movement or your body composition sort of before those things. 00:33:04.238 --> 00:33:07.601 So you really have the ability to kind of mix and match. Ideally, 00:33:07.684 --> 00:33:10.252 this most realistically probably takes three days. 00:33:10.335 --> 00:33:12.880 You don't need to be optimal in all these areas. 00:33:13.590 --> 00:33:16.301 to be quote unquote optimal health from this perspective. 00:33:16.384 --> 00:33:19.830 You just want to make sure again, there's no severe performance anchors. 00:33:19.913 --> 00:33:23.702 This is what we call them, right? We don't want any of these severe constraints 00:33:23.785 --> 00:33:25.585 because you're going to get limited. 00:33:26.130 --> 00:33:31.267 Buy that thing. And so what you want to do is move that up to just – sufficient. 00:33:31.350 --> 00:33:34.215 or concerning, right? And get it away from that. If you do that, 00:33:34.298 --> 00:33:37.532 that thing's not going to catch you. You're going to be able to continue 00:33:37.615 --> 00:33:41.217 to pursue optimization in any of the one things that you have a specific passion 00:33:41.300 --> 00:33:45.457 for, which is generally what moves people, right? You train so that you feel better. 00:33:45.540 --> 00:33:49.541 You train because... you know there are all these benefits to it, and, geez, 00:33:49.624 --> 00:33:51.787 this audience probably could list hundreds of, 00:33:51.870 --> 00:33:56.016 of them. But you also train because you generally like to get better at something. 00:33:56.100 --> 00:34:00.091 A lot of us, like, have something. And so you want to make sure that you're not 00:34:00.175 --> 00:34:02.361 going, hey, I know you're good at endurance, 00:34:02.444 --> 00:34:06.436 but you really shouldn't train anymore. We don't want that message. Not at all. 00:34:06.519 --> 00:34:10.057 I want you to love your training. So before we close out, I want to go 00:34:10.140 --> 00:34:14.307 the metrics for VO2 max because I don't actually think I gave you numbers on that. 00:34:14.390 --> 00:34:18.557 So in general, for men, a minimum number we want to look at here is 35 milliliters 00:34:18.640 --> 00:34:21.615 per kilogram per minute. And for women, that'd be about 30. 00:34:21.698 --> 00:34:24.860 We can actually push a lot higher on those things in reality. 00:34:25.230 --> 00:34:29.157 I want to see men above 50. And I'm not even really stoked until I get above 55. 00:34:29.240 --> 00:34:33.050 In fact, if I want to see men above 55, I really want to see women above 50. 00:34:33.810 --> 00:34:38.770 I want to add just one more metric to our discussion today, which is really just... 00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:42.960 my way of saying thank you because if there were a metric for 00:34:43.380 --> 00:34:46.755 amount of useful information per sentence spoke, 00:34:46.838 --> 00:34:50.141 you would be at the upper level of that metric. 00:34:50.224 --> 00:34:55.976 You have this amazing ability to provide so much knowledge in a clear and concise 00:34:56.059 --> 00:34:57.500 and today listed out 00:34:57.900 --> 00:35:02.097 format that is both interesting, grounded in science, and actionable. 00:35:02.180 --> 00:35:06.378 So on behalf of everyone listening, and certainly for myself as well, 00:35:06.461 --> 00:35:08.260 I just want to say thank you. 00:35:08.730 --> 00:35:12.511 Well, I appreciate the compliments, and I'm looking forward to the next 00:35:12.594 --> 00:35:16.593 conversation, jumping right into speed, strength, and hypertrophy training, 00:35:16.676 --> 00:35:21.030 and what are the evidence-based and best practices for protocols in those areas.