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Why lower belly fat is fixed in the kitchen, not the gym

How nutritional consistency, not ab exercises, melts stubborn lower belly fat; Cavaliere also explains why discipline beats motivation for lifelong strength.

Jeff CavaliereguestSteven Bartletthost
May 15, 20252h 15mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 2:05

    Intro

    1. JC

      Taking creatine can increase muscle and strength, but also improve brain health and performance in sleep-deprived and high-stress states. But there's some new research coming out showing its ability to slow, prevent things like- (beep) (music stops)

    2. SB

      Wow.

    3. JC

      Jeff Cavaliere is the physical therapist and strength coach-

    4. SB

      Trusted by the NFL, MLB, WWE, and even Sylvester Stallone. He's built a global reputation for science-based training that delivers. What do people want?

    5. JC

      When we poll our followers, I found that for men, they want their six-pack abs, getting bigger arms, develop their chest. And for women, they wanna have better legs and well-developed backsides. So we'll get into those exercises. But the biggest problem most people have is the struggle to get started, and in doing so, become paralyzed by inactivity and say, "I'm not gonna do anything at all." And I get emotional, but it's sad when people don't ever find that drive and, and motivation, 'cause, like, the detrimental effects that prolonged sitting can have on your body, they call it the new smoking. Like, if I take away your health, you're done. So finding the drive to get yourself on track with pursuing optimal health is everything.

    6. SB

      So even if I was one of those people struggling to get the ball rolling, where would you start with me?

    7. JC

      I would start with- (music resumes)

    8. SB

      And I'm not done yet. Lower belly fat, how do I get rid of that? Calories in, calories out. What's your view? You say that there are five key exercises to maximize your longevity and quality of life. Can you show me these workouts?

    9. JC

      Sure.

    10. SB

      And then why did you bring this skeleton with you with the bowtie?

    11. JC

      This is Raymond, and I use him to show one of the most fascinating areas of training that has yet to be uncovered. (music ends)

    12. SB

      This has always blown my mind a little bit, 53% of you that listen to this show regularly haven't yet subscribed to the show. So could I ask you for a favor before we start? If you like this show and you like what we do here and you wanna support us, the free simple way that you can do just that is by hitting the subscribe button. And my commitment to you is, if you do that, then I'll do everything in my power, me and my team, to make sure that this show is better for you every single week. We'll listen to your feedback, we'll find the guests that you want me to speak to, and we'll continue to do what we do. Thank you so much. (music) Jeff, you're very much known

  2. 2:05 – 5:33

    Jeff's Mission

    1. SB

      as the, the king and the OG of online fitness, training, advice, support. In terms of the mission that you're on in particular and how your perspective differs from other people out there in the market, what is it that you think makes your perspective different, unique, and more important potentially than a lot of the perspectives out there as it relates to how to, how to, how to build up our muscles, how to have a strong, healthy body, and how to prolong our health span?

    2. JC

      Everybody that, for the most part, that's out there trying to put information out, they should have a level, there's a level of respect I have for everyone doing that, 'cause they're all trying to help people get better or improve themselves. I think where I was really heavily focused was on a more comprehensive, more, uh, multifaceted way to do that, because my background wasn't just in, let's say, strength training or in aesthetic appeal of, of training. But also as a physical therapist and having a physical therapy background, I understood the importance of not sacrificing the body in the process of trying to aesthetically improve the body. So I believe that when people understand the why and they do become empowered to sort of, you know, make this their own journey, the benefits are so far-reaching. It's, it's not just the gym or the aesthetic appeal that you impro- improve. It's your, it's so many facets of life that improve because fitness improves. Like mental health is directly related to people's physical health. If you feel, if you look better and feel better about yourself, your mental health improves too. Like, every element of life is improved, I think, with improved levels of fitness and health. So my why has always been to just use my platform to try to get people to understand that even the smallest investments, it doesn't have to be every bit I do, and I try to stress that in all my videos, especially when we start to talk about nutrition. Like, you don't have to eat the way I do to get as lean as I am to still benefit from being lean. You could be, you could have body fat levels much higher and still see the immense benefits in terms of overall health. So you don't have to do it exactly how I do it, but take the information and apply it to yourself. That, to me, is the most rewarding part of it, because if I can show you how to do it, it's the whole thing, teach a man to fish, right?

    3. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    4. JC

      If I could do that, then I think I've done something right. I say all the time, "I could take everything away from you. I could take all your money, I could take houses, I could take everything away. I could take even, you know, relationships away, 'cause we could always find another relationship potentially. If I take away your health, you're done."

    5. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    6. JC

      Health is everything.

    7. SB

      And what did you study?

    8. JC

      So a few things. Physioneurobiology was, uh, my in- initial degree, and, um, I became a physical therapist, which required another three years.

    9. SB

      And you became a certified strength and conditioning specialist as well?

    10. JC

      Most of the jobs that were in professional sports would require some certification in that regard, so you'd have to have a college degree. But then you'd also have to have, um, um, a certification, in this case, it was the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

    11. SB

      And over the last 25 years since you got that certification, who have you worked with, who have you helped, and how many people?

    12. JC

      The most important thing that came from that certification was that it qualified me to work for the Mets, and

  3. 5:33 – 6:19

    Training the World's Best Athletes

    1. JC

      that-

    2. SB

      Wha- What's the Mets for you in that? Does it make-

    3. JC

      Th- So the Mets are the New York Mets professional baseball team. So I worked with some of the best baseball players in the world. Had a chance to work with some of the greatest football players in the world, like, and some wrestlers. I'm a big wrestling fan growing up and we have a lot of wrestlers that, that come through. And that's a cool thing, because wrestling, though some people may not like the storyboarding of wrestling, athletically, they're some of the most gifted athletes in the world. I mean, the travel schedule, the amount of days that they, that they, that they wrestle every week, the, the rigors that they put their body through. Whatever you wanna say-... the outcome might be determined, but the, the, the, the bumps and bruises are not fake. And, you know, they also have to have that a-aesthetic appeal too. So it's this combination of athletic and aesthetic that always appealed

  4. 6:19 – 7:46

    Motivation vs. Discipline

    1. JC

      to me.

    2. SB

      When I look at someone like you and I see these bulging muscles and I see how lean you are, I ... It's very easy to fall into the trap of thinking, "Well, you were just born with extreme motivation-

    3. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    4. SB

      ... and that's why you are the way that you are."

    5. JC

      Well, (sighs) I think that motivation is extremely overrated, right? Because, like, motivation isn't what produces the results. It might get you to the, to the show and get you just t- to actually show up at the gym and initiate the work, but only discipline keeps you there. And being disciplined is the number one asset somebody can have. Now, discipline comes with finding success. So at an early age if you can, or an early training age, if you can experience some success early, you do become motivated, again self-motivated, um, to continue on down that path. So my genetics were never great. I, I didn't ... If ... My mom was 5' tall, my, my dad's 5'9", 5'8", 160 pounds, not a lot of muscle. I definitely have surpassed my dad in muscle, but like, I didn't come from this genetically gifted pool of Cavaliers. There's no, there's no way. But I did have this desire to do something in terms of training and taking my body as far as I could, but I really found the discipline through the fact that I liked it, and I found that this was feeding me in other ways. It was, it was making me feel fulfilled, so it was easier for me to stick to it.

  5. 7:46 – 10:17

    Advice for People Struggling to Get Started

    1. JC

    2. SB

      You, you must deal with so many people that are struggling, that come to you and they say, "Listen, I've got these big goals. I'm, I'm overweight-

    3. JC

      Yeah.

    4. SB

      ... I don't feel good. I've got diabetes here, cardiovascular problem here, inflammation here." And they say to you that they want to change.

    5. JC

      Yeah.

    6. SB

      You know, you can see it in their face they're desperate, but they don't change for whatever reason.

    7. JC

      We live in an age now where you have access to the internet, you have so much access to information. Use it in whatever way you can to get started on your journey, 'cause the earlier you start, the better. But it's, it's, it is quite sad when people don't ever find that spark. And trying to play catch-up, there's no lie to it, you're not ... it's gonna be harder as you get older. Starting or initiating a training program in your 40s and 50s, though way better than not starting one, is much more difficult than if you had started in your teens and 20s. You know, to develop that habit, to maintain that habit, it's very difficult to initiate that the older that you get. But I do think that it's possible. So my best advice to people who have that struggle to get started is to figure out ways that you can eliminate thinking, right? 'Cause the longer you think, the more likely you are to not be able to do it. You know the thing that stops most people, there's that saying, "The start is what stops most people," right?

    8. SB

      Yeah.

    9. JC

      But at the same token, it's not the obstacle that's in your way, it's the fact that the path of least resistance is more inviting. So you wind up saying, "Well, (sighs) I don't know. You know, I could just sit on the couch and watch this. I'm, I'm not gonna go to the gym." And believe me, there's even nights now for me where I'll be with one of my sons, we'll be in his room, putting him to bed, might fall asleep in there, you know, and wake up and it's late at night. I don't even think. I let my dogs out, I go right outside, I walk. Sometimes I'm literally half asleep as I'm walking, but I know if can get to the gym, get in there, turn on the s- the music and kinda put the lights on and do one warmup set, I'll, I'll be good. And if I even sat down for a second, I might find that path of least resistance (laughs) to be a lot more inviting and that couch to be a lot more comfortable. And then once it becomes something that you enjoy, because for the most part I think you probably enjoy it now, right, the process?

    10. SB

      Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

    11. JC

      It becomes a lot easier to make that automatic step. But there's still gonna be days, you know, maybe a long day of shooting, you know, and you're gonna be like, "Oh, no, not ... maybe not today." But if you stop the negotiation with yourself and you just go and make that first action, that's all it usually takes to get you through the door and you realize that, you know what you- what you were set out to do.

  6. 10:17 – 14:19

    What Motivates Jeff's Audience?

    1. SB

      When you think about all the many millions of people that have watched your videos, I mean, it's actually billions of people that have watched your videos and consumed your content, you must hear a lot of different types of spark.

    2. JC

      Yeah.

    3. SB

      When I say spark, I mean the moment in someone's life where they ... something happened-

    4. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    5. SB

      ... and it stuck. It finally stuck. What are the kind of things that you hear?

    6. JC

      Oh, man, they're life-changing. Like, that ... It, it, it is, it's part of the why that keeps me going, you know, hearing some of these stories. I had a live event a few years ago, first one that we ever had. So I was, I was a rookie. I didn't know how it was going to go, but part of that event was a competition that we ran. So anyway, we, we had a guy who was in his, uh, late 50s, first one to do the competition, so he w- he drew number one. Okay? So he goes and the first thing we had was a 300-yard shuttle, which is just a 50-yard distance. They had to run to the cone and back, that's 100 yards back and forth again, and back and forth again. It was extremely hot that day, it was like 95 degrees, 'cause of course I ran the event in July, and it was like, "Okay, this is not gonna work out so well." So anyway, he goes out, he comes back on the last run, he, uh, he starts to windmill his arms. He's, he's losing his balance forward. And I'm like, "Oh, no." And he crashes down, wipes out, scrapes up his knee, blood all over the place. Okay, next kid comes up. He d- he's up now. He goes, by the second station he's overheated. He tried so hard, he has to stand out the rest of the competition because he overheated from ... I was ready to, to put a stop to the games 'cause I said, "We just weren't prepared for this heat," and this is the first time, and anyway, we continued. So the fourth drill up for the man that I talked about in the beginning was a sled push. And we had put 225 pounds on the sled, but that sled was on the pavement out in the parking lot from this gym that we, that we hosted it at.... the friction of the, of the sled on the ground was not really something that was accounted for. It made it even more difficult. Well, again, he's got that bloodied up knee. He's pr- he's pushing it. He gets it to the end, he's struggling, and now he has to pick up at the end a 100-count, -pound kettlebell and walk it back. He goes down there, he grabs the kettlebell after a long, you know, multiple attempt to get the sled down there. And I finally run down there and I said, uh, his name was Craig. I said, "Craig, dude, you don't have to do this. You're good. You're good. It's okay." And he's like, "No," and he says, "I'm gonna do it." And now he starts walking, and he's crossing the legs over each other. It looks like he's gonna go down again. And I put my arm around him and I said, "Man, listen, you don't have to do this." He says (laughs) , and I get goosebumps even thinking of this. He goes, "Jeff, I have to do this." He goes, "I was diagnosed with MS, you know, four years ago and I can't feel my feet. I gotta do this." And i- i- it's that kind of drive and, and motivation, and you never know, 'cause you don't know who the p- what they're dealing with, you know? And I get emotional, but it's, it's like that's the kinda stuff that gets me going. We had another guy who, uh, competed at our event, and he was doing, uh, the push-up portion of the competition. It's his second year, and he was doing his push-ups, wasn't going all the way down. So got down to, like, I don't know, two, three inches away from his chest. So I go over to him, I'm like, um, "Hey, dude, just do it a little bit lower, get your chest down." He says, "I can't because I have a port in my chest and I have stage four cancer, and I can't get all the way down because of the port." He wound up dying two months after the competition. So, when you realize that people do this for reasons that you don't like, it's not just to go to the gym to get a six-pack. It's, it's going there to, for reasons we'll never know, and I think that tho- those kinds of, um, moments are more than touching to me, as you can tell. But like, they're, they're, they're just, they show the power of will, and that is something that we'll never be able to quantify.

  7. 14:19 – 17:13

    The Impact of Doing Hard Things

    1. JC

    2. SB

      Within that is when I was thinking about how that guy who wouldn't put that 100-pound kettlebell down-

    3. JC

      Yeah.

    4. SB

      For him, it, it was actually about a story he wanted to tell to himself.

    5. JC

      Of course.

    6. SB

      It's something that he wanted to do for reasons that are much more about one's identity and one's self story-

    7. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    8. SB

      ... as we call it. And, uh, on that particular point, it's one of the things that I often think about with fitness and working out is, if I can be the guy that grabs the keys that day when I don't feel like it, then how that permeates through the rest of my life and how I show up in the rest of my life when there's things I don't wanna do, a- and how that then shapes me over time into somebody who is able to have the difficult conversation-

    9. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    10. SB

      ... is able to confront the thing, I think is, like, really understated. I actually was reading this, um, I think Andrew Huberman told me this. He said that they've, neuroscience has found a part of the brain which is associated with doing hard things.

    11. JC

      Yes, I saw that.

    12. SB

      And I think he said basically that that part of the, the brain, and I'll put this up on the screen, grows the more hard things that you do.

    13. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    14. SB

      So you basically build the muscle of being able to do hard things. And the minute I learned that, I went, "Oh, this makes a lot of sense," because the more I was able to make the workout stick and the health and fitness stick and now my diet is like ex- ex- as we see here now, is extremely disciplined.

    15. JC

      Yeah.

    16. SB

      I've, like, changed as a person in other areas of my life. Like, I've got more organized with, like, my, my possessions and...

    17. JC

      Well, you realize what you're capable of, too, right?

    18. SB

      Yeah.

    19. JC

      'Cause I think we undersell our capabilities, and I think that, uh, in reference to those two men that I just talked about, like, when you're staring at the face of something that seems to be much more dire than, again, what level of fitness you have, you realize that there's a much deeper well that you can tap into to do things that you don't wanna do.

    20. SB

      Yeah.

    21. JC

      And I think the people that are lucky enough, like yourself, to have found that, have found the keys to the kingdom to be able to, you know, take themselves to another level of awareness and self-awareness that does m- 100%, like you said, play out in other areas of your life. You know, when you can do the difficult thing, p- uh, it's still not an automatic that you're gonna be able to have that difficult conversation with somebody, you know? But you know that you have the capacity to do things that you didn't really think you could, and it gives you that confidence to actually go and carry those out. Interesting thing on that, that, uh, study that, uh, Andrew Huberman was talking about was that if you start to like the thing that you actually didn't like in the beginning, then it no longer challenges that area of the brain. That area of the brain starts to shrink again.

    22. SB

      Oh, really? (laughs)

    23. JC

      So it, it has to kind of... Which is cool because it means that you need to continue to seek challenge.

    24. SB

      I was thinking a lot about

  8. 17:13 – 18:00

    Are There Exercises Jeff Avoids?

    1. SB

      this over Christmas and New Year's. I was, I sat down with one of my best friends and said to him, I said, "What exercise and what thing do you dislike the most?"

    2. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    3. SB

      And we basically made a list of them, and then we started doing those things.

    4. JC

      That's cool.

    5. SB

      For me, it was actually running and it was (laughs) leg day and squatting.

    6. JC

      Yeah.

    7. SB

      It also made me, 'cause when I asked him why he didn't do those things-

    8. JC

      Yeah.

    9. SB

      ... the list of reasons he gave were things like, "My legs aren't..." insert excuse. "My brain..." insert excuse.

    10. JC

      Uh-huh.

    11. SB

      And we both came to realize together that that was just a bunch of bullshit-

    12. JC

      Yeah.

    13. SB

      ... that we had, like, made our identities and it was now limiting us. Are there things like that in your life that you just...

    14. JC

      Oh, gosh, yes.

    15. SB

      ... you avoid?

    16. JC

      Uh, conditioning.

    17. SB

      Okay.

    18. JC

      Running. I try to address those things and do them knowing that I should do more of them, but there's always more, more

  9. 18:00 – 21:32

    Deepest Motivators for Fitness

    1. JC

      to do.

    2. SB

      One of the things you must've figured out from all the content you've produced across all the, these channels is really the, like, the essence of what people want. And when I s- you know-

    3. JC

      Yeah.

    4. SB

      ... th- because you'll see from the views and the engagement and these things, you'll build this sort of mental pattern of, oh, okay, people are-

    5. JC

      Yes.

    6. SB

      ... really interested in this.

    7. JC

      Yeah.

    8. SB

      So if you had to summarize for me...... the essence of what you think people are looking for.

    9. JC

      Yeah.

    10. SB

      And when I say the essence, I mean, like, the why. Why, why-

    11. JC

      Yeah.

    12. SB

      ... why, why? The very bottom of that.

    13. JC

      Yeah.

    14. SB

      What are those things?

    15. JC

      Oh, I think, I think insecurity is definitely a factor. I think, um, a feeling of wanting to be accepted is, is part of that. I think a feeling of wanting to be more capable, right? Because I think that a lot, a lot of men carry insecurities of how capable they are. You know, if the moment arose that they needed to, let's say, protect their family or do something that was physically needed to be done, how capable would you actually be? And I think a lot of us feel insecure in our preparedness that way.

    16. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    17. JC

      So I think that's a driver. Um...

    18. SB

      I heard this quote many years ago, it says, "Change happens when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of making a change."

    19. JC

      Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

    20. SB

      And I was thinking, if you were my trainer and I was one of those stubborn people who was struggling to get the ball rolling-

    21. JC

      Yeah.

    22. SB

      ... where would you start with me? Like, what would you do?

    23. JC

      (laughs)

    24. SB

      If I was super stubborn, I tried for three years, I never made it stick, but, but clearly there was health consequences playing out in my body, where would you start with me to get me going?

    25. JC

      Probably with a conversation. You know, I would, I would start with, always with a conversation. I think it is important to see if you can understand the why for somebody.

    26. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    27. JC

      Because if you, if you ask this question, and this is an interesting exercise to do, but if you ask the question of, like, "Why do you want to get in shape?" Um, you might say, "I'm too fat right now." And I would say to you, "Well, what would it mean to you to not be as fat as you think you are?" "Well, I, I would be better because I'd have a six-pack." "What would be important if y- about having a six-pack?" "Well, I would like how I looked in the mirror more." "Why would it be important for you to like whos- who you're s- looking at in the mirror?" "Because I don't feel like I'm enough right now, because I'm letting myself down, because I know that I'm not doing the things I need to." "Why is it important to not let yourself down?" Right? So when you start to ask the question multiple... Keep digging, you find the why very quickly. And a lot of times, it comes from pain from childhood. It comes from pain of n- of letting others down. It comes from a feeling of inadequacy that you developed either because it was, you know, drilled into you from your parents or, or others, or because you just never lacked the self-confidence to actually feel better about yourself. I always say that most people who are lifelong gym-goers, they all have some level of pain in their life that caused them to seek this out because it's the one thing they can control. It's the one area where it's like, "I c- I don't have to listen to anybody. I have to do what I have to do for myself, and I'm in control of my body." And I think that a lot of times, people... Or it's, or it's an escape, you know, where you benefit from the endorphins that are released through exercise, and it's your escape for doing something to make yourself feel better. But th- a lot of times, people get into fitness as an escape from some of that pain. So if, if, if I had... You had come to me in the very beginning, I would have started with that conversation and tried to find out, why is it that you can't stick with this? You've tried and you stopped. And I think that people need to understand that and finding the why to get yourself on track with pursuing optimal health

  10. 21:32 – 23:09

    Surface-Level Motivators for Fitness

    1. JC

      is everything.

    2. SB

      What about the very top then? Like, how does it manifest, like the, the title of the video or the thing that

    3. NA

      Yeah.

    4. JC

      Yeah.

    5. SB

      ... they get.

    6. JC

      I mean, the top is, uh, abs, biceps, chest, and, uh, and (laughs) you know, low back pain. I mean, uh, people actually come to me for one of two things. Again, I think it's having the two, the two hats of physical therapist and, uh, strength and conditioning coach. I think people come to me to fix something-

    7. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    8. JC

      ... or to improve the look of something. So, we have lots and lots and lots of views obviously based around fixing issues. Um, low back pain, postural issues, knee pain, shoulder pain, and how it disrupts their ability to carry on in life or through their fitness pursuits. Then there's the other side of it where people, of course, they want their six-pack abs, and then they want their arms, and they want their chests. And I, I highlight those because the fact is, that is where people are most interested because it's, you know, it's, it's the, it's the beach muscles, but that's, it's a fact of life. People want to improve those areas. What I try to do when I, when I bring people in through that track is to also make them aware that it's, okay, this is cool. You, you want your abs, that's good, you know, but obviously this is gonna require a healthier eating plan. So, I know I can have a much broader impact on their overall health and life if I can get them to eat much healthier than they are right now. So I always feel that you can come in for whatever your top level interest might be, but my mission and goal is to make sure that you understand there's more to it than

  11. 23:09 – 24:56

    How to Look Good Physically

    1. JC

      that.

    2. SB

      I've kind of broken everything you've said into three sections, which is people want to look good, they want to perform-

    3. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    4. SB

      ... in whatever that might be, and they also want to be able to do it for a long time. They want to live long.

    5. JC

      Yeah.

    6. SB

      So under... If we start with looking good as a top line category, what are the things that you think are the subcategories of looking good?

    7. JC

      The amount of fat that someone carries, so how lean they are.

    8. SB

      Yeah.

    9. JC

      The aesthetic development of their muscles, what their bodies are shaped like. 'Cause you know, you could lose weight, but as you've described before, skinny fat isn't really an attractive look. Um, so I think they want to develop their muscles in specific ways.

    10. SB

      What is it, the difference you see between what men say they want versus what women say they want? What do men come to you and say that they want to...

    11. JC

      You know, as a, as a trainer of athletes, it's, it's sacrilegious to me, but they rarely discuss anything in the lower body. Right? They're not talking about, "I just want really big legs," or, "I want to have, you know, strong developed glutes." I mean, it's just not really high on the list. So pretty much everything is gonna focus on (laughs) you know, from the waist up in terms of the aesthetic desire. Bigger neck for men. For women, it's the opposite. Right? For women, they focus first and foremost below the waist. They want to have better legs. They want to have stronger legs. They want to have, uh, well-developed backsides. They want to, like... And there's probably, I mean, y- uh, a cultural importance upon that. You know, people are, you know, men are being judged aesthetically-... on their upper bodies more than women are, and women are being judged more aesthetically on their lower bodies. So pe- we're, we're feeding into those desires, especially, you know, one scroll through Instagram and you're just reinforcing everything I just talked about.

    12. SB

      In that category as well of looking good, um, nutrition?

    13. JC

      Most importantly, the level of body fat that you carry is going to be impacted by nutrition.

  12. 24:56 – 25:46

    How to Lose Body Fat and Get Leaner

    1. JC

      And-

    2. SB

      So let's start with fat and lean.

    3. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    4. SB

      If I want to be lean like you, and I wanna have low body fat-

    5. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    6. SB

      ... wh- where does one begin?

    7. JC

      What happened with me and what I always advise people to do is start just by looking at globally, from 30,000-foot view, w- what do you know you're doing, like, not well right now? Like, are you drinking excessively? Um, do you end every night with, you know, a pint of ice cream? Like, you, you know that you're doing some things wrong. So you make one pass at the obvious stuff, and you just do it for a couple weeks, you know, and you see how you progress. And what will normally happen is, is usually those are the most of- offending, they're the biggest offenders when it comes to nutrition, that you will notice some quick weight loss when you stop it.

  13. 25:46 – 27:29

    Less Obvious Nutrition Offenders

    1. JC

    2. SB

      What do you think are some of the offenders that we don't realize are offenders? I've had so many in my life, even like ketchup and-

    3. JC

      Yeah.

    4. SB

      ... r- I thought white rice was great.

    5. JC

      Yeah, I mean, white rice is actually... There's a place for carbohydrates in people's, in people's diets, I believe, but, um, you have to have a healthy respect for them, because they're the most likely to be overeaten. Like the desire to eat five steaks is not there for most of us, like you're, you, but you could pound a whole plate full of rice and then some, or pasta and then some, because they're, they're, they are much more chemically pleasing to the body. So I think people need to, uh, be cau- cautious of overconsumption of carbohydrates and they're not aware of portion sizes really impacting them. Because they'll say, "No, I had, I had rice and, uh, and, and pasta." And, and I would say, "I have rice and pasta too every day," but like I probably don't eat as much as that person does. So portion sizes when it comes to that is one of the areas people do not have a good awareness about. The kind of hidden offenders, I mean, there's sugar in a lot of things that is used just to make these things more appealing, especially, you know, like yogurts, right? People will have, you know, fruit on the bottom of yogurt, but it's like loaded with sugar. Or I- my first experience was oatmeal. I was reading the bodybuilding magazines in my teens, that every bodybuilder ate oatmeal in the morning. So of course I was buying Quaker Oats, but I was buying those little packets, and they have brown sugar in the bottom, and it's like they were loaded with sugar. They were not the equivalent of Quaker Oats from a ja- from a, like a, a canister. And so here I'm thinking I'm doing something right, but I'm not, because the, the, there was more sugar in that than there was in a, in a, a bag of or in a, a bowl of Trix cereal.

  14. 27:29 – 28:55

    What to Look for on Food Labels

    1. JC

    2. SB

      What do you look for on the, on the package?

    3. JC

      I always look for sugar and fat. That's what I look for. So bi- uh, dietary fat, there are nine calories per gram of fat versus four calories per gram of protein or carbohydrate. There are much more calorie-dense foods. So when you have fats on your plate in any way, shape, or form, calorically the, that dish is going to increase pretty quickly. So you have to be mindful of them if you, if you want to lose weight and achieve a hypocaloric state. To get there, you're gonna have to take in fewer calories than your, than your, than you're burning. That's why I would look at fat content. But sugar is just really not necessary. It's just one of those things that our bodies do not need and, um, tends to be, uh, too inviting to the point where people have a hard time stopping eating sugar. So I think that's one of the fastest ways to, um, to get yourself on track is to, is to try to minimize the sugar content in the food. And then I look for protein, because I think that protein has a lot of benefits in terms of improving that ratio of fat to lean muscle and also for its ability to satiate you. So if you're eating a higher protein food, you're likely going to find yourself feeling satisfied and full faster than if it's just a carbohydrate-based meal. So those are the three things that I look at every time I turn a label around, protein, sugar,

  15. 28:55 – 30:58

    What Jeff Eats in a Day

    1. JC

      and fats.

    2. SB

      And what does your diet look like?

    3. JC

      I eat, uh, breakfast in the morning and I have usually, again, I'll give you typical meals, I have, uh, oatmeal, I've been- put like some pumpkin in the oatmeal itself, some canned pumpkin just for some additional, uh, vi- vitamins and minerals, protein shake, um, and some maybe some egg whites. So I get good amounts of protein. And for lunch I'll have like a grilled chicken wrap. Again, I'm trying to prioritize protein at every single meal, and I'll try to have a Greek yogurt with, that has limited sugar in it. Um, then I'll have a protein shake usually after work only because I know that when I get done with work, usually at 6:00, I come home, the kids are there, they want to play, I wind up just having something to tide me over, realizing that my dinner's gonna occur later at night after my workout. What happens though is that workout occurs at around 10:30 to 11:00 at night-

    4. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    5. JC

      ... so dinner happens at around midnight for me. Um, that's always, again, based around a protein first, so usually chicken or steak or fish, and then fibrous carbohydrates. So it's gonna be something like, uh, I, I, I like edamame. It's a, you know, uh, has good protein, uh, in it and I'm not f- uh, fearful of the soy protein that's there, especially in that limited amount. Broccoli, and then I have my fi- my starchy carbohydrates, which my favorite of all time is, uh, sweet potatoes. So I'll have sweet potatoes or, or pasta or both.

    6. SB

      I'm still shocked that you're eating dinner at midnight.

    7. JC

      Yeah.

    8. SB

      And that... What, so what time do you train?

    9. JC

      So I train around 10:30 or 11:00 until around quarter to 12:00 or so.

    10. SB

      Is that suboptimal?

    11. JC

      It's, it's only optimal because it's when I can consistently do it.

    12. SB

      Okay.

    13. JC

      If I could change that, I would probably w- work out at 5:00 PM.You know, but I always find that there's still work going on. People still need me at that point in the day.

    14. SB

      Why not the morning?

    15. JC

      I have a very difficult time waking up. I'm one of those people that act like a zombie for probably, uh, 15 minutes before I'm feeling ready

  16. 30:58 – 33:40

    Eating and Sleeping Times

    1. JC

      to go.

    2. SB

      I'm very much the same.

    3. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    4. SB

      I probably eat a bit too late. I train a bit too late, etc. And as I'm listening to you, I'm almost listening to myself.

    5. JC

      Yeah.

    6. SB

      And I know the rebuttal is that, "Well, Steven, if you went to bed earlier and you ate earlier, then you'd wake up and you'd-"

    7. JC

      Right. Yeah.

    8. SB

      "... be able to train in the morning."

    9. JC

      Well, how do you feel when you wake up? Do you feel energetic as soon as you wake up or do you feel-

    10. SB

      N- no.

    11. JC

      Yeah.

    12. SB

      Um, w- I'm very similar to you. I wake up late.

    13. JC

      Yeah.

    14. SB

      And if I wake up late then I feel fine, but if you try and wake me up at seven o'clock, the chances are that I went to bed maybe at midnight or 1:00 AM.

    15. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    16. SB

      So there's not enough sleep taking place there. But having worn this Whoop for a while, who are a sponsor-

    17. JC

      Yeah.

    18. SB

      ... I'm an investor in the company, hashtag ad, hashtag ASA, um, one of the things I came to learn was that when I eat close to the time I go to sleep, my body isn't actually asleep, 'cause I can see my resting heart rate so high through the night.

    19. JC

      Yeah.

    20. SB

      So my body's actually just working on the f- the food-

    21. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    22. SB

      ... so it's not restoring-

    23. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    24. SB

      ... my body. So one of my goals for this year is to try and n- not eat after 9:00 PM.

    25. JC

      I, I think it's a good goal in terms of establishing a more regular sleep or, or, or time to go to bed. Because the number one thing I think people need to understand is that when it comes to sleep, the r- the routine of sleep is what's most important, I believe.

    26. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    27. JC

      Even in cases of lower sleep totals. Um, there's actually 27% of people report sleeping, uh, less than six hours a night, and 20% of people sleep four to five hours. I actually fall into the category of sleeping probably five to six hours, uh, most nights, 'cause I get to bed late and I get up around seven o'clock each, each morning.

    28. SB

      Do you sleep track?

    29. JC

      Um, I don't sleep track. I did for a while. Um, I don't sleep track. I actually, you know, I've tracked my cortisol levels and my levels of cortisol have actually improved even as my sleep time, my total sleep time has diminished.

    30. SB

      Mm-hmm.

  17. 33:40 – 38:32

    Getting Rid of Stubborn Belly Fat

    1. JC

    2. SB

      On this point of being, uh, lean, one of the things people are most obsessed with getting rid of is lower belly fat.

    3. JC

      Yeah.

    4. SB

      This stubborn belly fat that occurs right-

    5. JC

      Right there.

    6. SB

      ... right there on our little mannequin here. You don't have a pouch. It's what we call it, me and my friends-

    7. JC

      Yeah.

    8. SB

      ... we call it a pouch. Um, we can be, you know, very lean elsewhere-

    9. JC

      Uh-huh.

    10. SB

      ... but still have a little bit of a pouch there. Some people think doing sit-ups is the way to get rid of that stubborn belly fat. What is the answer in your view?

    11. JC

      It's the level of strictness of nutrition, and when I mean the level of strictness, it's not just in the foods that you choose, but the consistency with which you choose them. So how long can you sustain this really clean diet? And I hate the word clean diet 'cause usually when people say they eat clean, it's actually the first thing, it's a red flag that they don't.

    12. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    13. JC

      Um, but I think it comes from having a sustained ability to eat in a very restricted way. When men put on body fat, that is the first place to go on and the last place to come off. And one of the biggest areas for that, you mentioned that I don't have one, but I mean, as, as ridiculous as that s- this is going to sound, when I start to see a little bit of fat on my body, it's right there. And it's because that is the absolute first place to go on. The s- the shamefulness of, of how your body does this and what it does to us is that it kind of works from this top-down approach. Like you'll lose fat first from here and then it kind of goes down and the last place is here. So it works in this top-down approach. Well, by the time you get all the way down there, you've lost the fat in your face. You've lost the fat in your neck. So like, you know, I, I, I sometimes I'll look at myself in the mirror and I'm like, "Man, you're gone." You know, and I hate the way that li- my, my face gets sort of caved in. But it's sometimes the price that you pay in terms of maintaining a lean physique, um, especially naturally because that's how your body starts to lose fat, and especially as you age, you start to lose collagen and skin thickness so it looks even, it's even more of a challenge. But this top-down approach is sometimes good because it allows you to start to see like the upper row abs underneath the chest or s- when you start to get into better shape, you might have noticed this yourself, you start to see like, okay, my, my lower chest isn't as saggy anymore. It's actually-

    14. SB

      Yeah.

    15. JC

      ... starting to take some shape. Well, what's cool is that's actually that little spark of motivation that like I want to keep going. So you-

    16. SB

      I can see the top ab.

    17. JC

      Right.

    18. SB

      (laughs)

    19. JC

      I can see the top ab. Like there it is. I can see, I have them.

    20. SB

      (laughs)

    21. JC

      You know, I actually have them. You know, I got a two pack, but I have them. Well, you continue down that path. Sometimes you sharpen up the diet a little bit more. Sometimes you take one extra night of, you know, uh, socializing or drinking out of the schedule and you start to see it y- you know, go even lower and you start to get that second row of abs. Then it becomes a question of how motivated you are to actually just continue and what level of sacrifice is required or is worth it to you to continue. And that's the caveat that I always say, I mentioned early on, like is it that important to you? Because I could tell you that at 10%, 11%, 12% body fat, you're gonna look amazing and you're gonna look better than 98% of all men. So-... whether you had that little tiny, you know, area of fat around your waist, you're still gonna have your abs, you're still gonna have defined shoulders and arms and, you know, some veins popping out in other places. Like, is that, is that good enough so that you experience the health benefits you already would ex- be, you, you'd be there? Aesthetically, you're probably really happy with where you are now compared to where you came from, and you still get to live a life that's not as filled with sacrifice-

    22. SB

      Yeah.

    23. JC

      ... to get there, and that's the battle people have to, have to, um, wage and ask themselves, "What is, how worth it is it to me?"

    24. SB

      I- is the game of weight loss basically calories in, calories out? I, I just need to have less calories than I burn?

    25. JC

      Yes and no. So, to lose weight, you're going to need to be in a calorie deficit. Um, but if you took that approach and just ate whatever you wanted to, let's just say you ate Twinkies in a deficit, you're not gonna get the same outcome because the type of weight lost is going to vary depending upon what you ingest. So if you don't ingest enough protein and you're just eating Twinkies, you might lose weight, but you're also gonna lose muscle in the, in the, in the process. So if you wanna deter the loss of muscle and a- and maximize the retention of muscle and maybe, again, even slightly build in that deficit, then you're gonna wanna prioritize protein. So it's not just the calories in, calories out. That will get you to lose the weight, but when you ultimately... I think when people aren't just talking about weight loss. They really wanna make sure that they're maximizing lean muscle at the same time they're losing weight. If they wanna look a certain way, function a certain way, it's, it, it, it's gonna matter.

  18. 38:32 – 40:37

    Misconceptions About Abs

    1. JC

    2. SB

      What are the big misconceptions we have about abs?

    3. JC

      To get rid of the body fat by doing those crunches and stuff, like, that doesn't work. You know, um, I think that's probably the biggest misconception. I always remember Laszlo. Laszlo is a, was a guy who worked on my house as a contractor when we were building it. He would come up to me because he was like the typical male, right? He was in pretty decent shape. He worked every day, active. He's like, "I gotta get in shape, man." And I was like, "Well, you know, how many days a week do you train?" He said, "Well, I don't really train. I just, you know, just do a couple push-ups and stuff." I said, "Well, you're gonna have to probably train. What do you do for your nutrition?" "I kinda eat what I want." And I was like, "All right." But he wasn't really overweight, you know, but he's the typical... And I, he goes, "Just tell me what I could, I just wanna know what I can do for this. What's a good exercise I can do for this?"

    4. SB

      For, for his belly fat?

    5. JC

      For the belly fat and just pointing at his stomach. And it's like there's still that belief that there's just an exercise or two that you need to do for that. That's not how, that's not how it is. Abs are not going to be gotten through just the exercise. It's always about nutrition. It's always about... Nutrition determines body fat levels, uh, above everything else. Now, when you get lean enough, if you're not doing any type of, uh, ab training, you'll probably have less defined abs because you won't have the development of that muscle. There's nothing different about the abdominals and the biceps or the quads. They're still muscles that can be developed. And because of the anatomy of the abs, there's that line down the middle and the tax, right? That's just caused by a suturing down of something called linea alba. It's just a tendinous sheath. When you develop the muscles themselves through either crunches or resistance training, right, even weighted ab work is, is helpful in this case, the muscles are just growing, just like a bicep would grow.

    6. SB

      Right.

    7. JC

      And as they grow, the, you can't change the suturing down of the tendinous sheath, so they're sort of growing out more prominently from that area, so you get more visible abs. But that's the only way to really do that, is through training to hypertrophy the abs. But you're not gonna get there if you don't first attack the body fat that's over them, and that's only gonna come from nutrition.

  19. 40:37 – 44:27

    Long-Term Consequences of Steroid and Growth Hormone Use

    1. JC

    2. SB

      You know, sometimes you see s- um, older bodybuilders, like former bodybuilders, and they kind of look a bit bloated.

    3. JC

      Mm.

    4. SB

      What is that?

    5. JC

      Uh, that's usually anabolic steroid use that causes that, or growth hormone. Um, that doesn't generally come from n- natural occurrences where your b- where your belly gets so bloated like that. I mean, sometimes if you have, um, different types of hernias, you can get hernias actually within the a- a- abdomen, not just in the inguinal, um, you know, in the groin area. That could cause some of that distension in the abs, but not that global bloating that you get there. That's really usually a tell ti- a telltale sign of, like, growth hormone use, something that they've a- that they've abused that causes the, the organs underneath to actually grow and cause distension, pushing out of the belly.

    6. SB

      That's the organs growing underneath?

    7. JC

      Yeah, yeah. It's actually, it's, it's a pretty disturbing visual when you think about it. But it's not a, it's certainly not a healthy thing to have, and, uh, you know, there's always a lot of repercussions to, um, going down that path. You know, they might look short term the way they wanna look, and I would argue that even in those cases, you know, the, the, the large, super large Mr. Olympia look, I don't even know if that was ever aesthetically appealing to me or even a lot of people. But, um, it, it definitely leaves behind a lot of, a lot of damage.

    8. SB

      And people do that at a variety of different ages now. I think even people that aren't training to be bodybuilders, I can think of several people that I, I'm aware of who have started taking, like, TRT-

    9. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    10. SB

      ... and growth hormones pretty young.

    11. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    12. SB

      And I'm actually seeing a little bit of that same body sh- shape.

    13. JC

      Shape and...

    14. SB

      I don't even know what it is, but...

    15. JC

      Yeah, I mean, I think it, look it, TRT is becoming such a prevalent path for people. I don't like that that's the prevalent path. I don't wanna come across as somebody who is anti-TRT because I've been, I've been reminded of that and that, on some of the videos I've made about it, that, "Look, Geoff, there's a lot of cases where people have extremely bottomed out testosterone levels, and there's nothing medically that can be done other than replace the testosterone that's not being made." I completely appreciate that. But as you've noted-... the rise in interest in TRT is coming from a lot of the documentation of people talking about their use of it and, and how, you know, they, it's- it's physically changing them. And they're doing it at a- at a rate, like, it's- it's becoming option one. Like, what about maximizing your natural potential first, you know, before declaring yourself as low testosterone, even at levels like of 400 and 500 and then going and using testosterone. Like, you're gonna be on that for the rest of your life if you pursue that path. You know, once you decide to replace your body's own natural testosterone level with exogenous testosterone, you're gonna have to rely on that for the rest of your life. Now some people can get off of that and then try to restore their body's ability to produce testosterone, but that's not a given. So be prepared that once you go down that path, it's one you're gonna have to be on for the rest of your life.

    16. SB

      Have you ever taken TRT?

    17. JC

      No. No.

    18. SB

      Would you ever?

    19. JC

      (sighs) If it's proven down the road that it's something that could be beneficial and safe, uh, I- I- I wanna say, I wanna- I'm aching to say 100% safe (laughs) 'cause that's what I want, then maybe I would if I felt like I was really suffering from, you know, the- the- the loss or the change that my body was going through. 'Cause I don't wanna just let myself get old, I wanna try to do what I can.

    20. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    21. JC

      But up till now, the journey for me has been completely n- natural and to do it in a way that it feels most rewarding, 'cause I haven't had to do anything, so I feel like I'm m- most inspired by my ability to keep going. And I'm- I'm gonna be 50 this year.

  20. 44:27 – 50:06

    Part Two: Training for Longevity

    1. JC

    2. SB

      What about let's do living long then, um, when we think about longevity and what it's gonna take for me to be ... live a long time but be strong into my later years, where, what areas do I need to focus on training and- and staying strong, and where do I need to invest my energy and time?

    3. JC

      So this is where I think when I say, i- if you wanna look like an athlete, you gotta train like an athlete, 'cause like the hallmark of their training is that it's multifaceted. So you can't just have one element developed and be a great athlete. Even if you look at someone as one-dimensional, I'm not doing this- saying this to put them down, but one-dimensional as an arm wrestler, right? They could have grip strength and forearm strength and rotator cuff strength, you know, to be able to actually turn somebody over. But if they have poor nutrition, poor sleep, poor recovery, they're likely gonna lose, especially because your neurological output in grip is directly correlated to your ability to recover. If you don't have more than one element de- developed, you're not going to be your best. So when people are looking, the general population is looking to become healthier and feel better, it's not gonna be one thing. First and foremost, I believe that getting on a training plan that prioritizes the building of muscle, so hypertrophy and strength-building, is gonna be really important, because we are gonna, again, w- like I talked about before, you're going to naturally lose strength every passing decade, you know, up to 8 to 10% per decade as you- as you pass the age of 50. So you need to make sure that you are doing something to stave that off. You can dramatically slow that down by engaging in strength training and engaging in regular weight training with the purpose of trying to build muscle. But y- you have to do that. The brain ages, so having challenges to your balance, having challenges to your ability to maintain muscle recruitment, 'cause that's, again, neurologically, your brain- your neurons start to fire at a slower pace. You need to train these things, reactivity, reactions, you know, reaction skills, again, balance drills. These are all little parts of things that people can do. I always remember seeing this old man. He was in a, he had an obstacle course he built. I don't know if you ever saw this, but it was a video. He- he was like 89 years old and he made this obstacle course and he used to add, every week or so, he'd add one more obstacle to his course, and he built it in his backyard. And it was like a balance beam and then a net that he had to climb and all these things, and he used to run the obstacle course once a day.

    4. SB

      Wow.

    5. JC

      And he said that like he would try to find new ways to challenge his body so that he would keep his brain guessing as to what's next. And again, whether or not it w- he was, he was, uh, finding this thing to be something he didn't wanna do, maybe it was also feeding into his- his- his, uh, increases because of he was doing the things he hated (laughs) to do. But the, but the idea was he maintained his fitness by being completely multifaceted and by incorporating some of these balance and reaction type drills into his approach because it is important. Uh, the fall risk impro- uh, increases, uh, exponentially as you get older. Um, a lot of it has to do with something we'll talk about, um, w- with the thoracic spine and losing mobility there. But like, you need to factor those types of things in. Flexibility and mobility feed into that. Like you can't ... I always talk about there's a- there's a pyramid, right? If you look at the- the- the old nutrition pyramid, there's a bottom which is supposed to be represent the- the- like all the things you're supposed to work on, and then it kind of fine-tunes and works its way up. At the bottom of the pyramid most would say is strength, right? You gotta s- you gotta maintain your strength. And then above that you gotta maintain your- your muscle mass, like the amount of lean muscle you carry. And above that, your ability to perform because of those two attributes, so to be able to actually do things. And if it was an athlete, it would be like their skill work would be at the very, very top, so could you, if you're a baseball player, you know, how well do you swing the bat, you know, how well do you field the ground ball? Like so it's that top level skill work that comes up here.

    6. SB

      Is cardiovascular in there?

    7. JC

      Cardiovascular is in there as well- as well, yep. Your- your conditioning would be right, you know, d- d- depending upon who you talk to in terms of longevity and performance and the sport you play, it's gonna fall right above or below strength.Now, I would argue that there's a few things underneath the whole thing. It's just like a tree. You see the tree above the ground, but you don't see the roots.

    8. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    9. JC

      And this- and the pyramid sits on the ground, but what's underneath the pyramid, the roots, your stability, your flexibility, your mobility. Because if I took the strongest person that could squat 600 pounds, but now I'm gonna put you on a stability ball and tell you to do the same thing, you're not doing it. I just took away your amazing strength because I took away your stability. And if you can't obtain certain positions of your body because you lack the mobility or you lack the flexibility, then I've also taken away and I've weakened the strength that you have. It's there, your strength is there, but it can't be expressed because I took away the stability. So the real root of longevity in fitness is really in your ability to maintain mobility, flexibility, and stability. Flexibility is the muscle length and- and the- and the ability to change the length of the muscle. Mobility is the joint excursions, the ability to move your joints in- in- in, um, their full range of motion. So it's- it's a muscle or joint thing. Still the same concept, but they're working on different elements.

  21. 50:06 – 52:06

    Top 3 Overlooked Elements of Training

    1. JC

    2. SB

      Do you think people realize that that's so important and do you think they enjoy it?

    3. JC

      No, I think people hate it and I think that... I mean, some people like it. If you're into the practice of yoga, pilates, you- you will likely gain a quick appreciation for how much better you feel when you do those types of, uh, exercises that will improve mobility and flexibility. But for the average gym goer, no. It- it's either gonna get relegated to the last thing they do, uh, before they leave the gym or not at all. And I think that that's gonna have a big impact on how well they feel. I think that when they talk about the Fountain of Youth, stretching and mobility is probably the thing that makes people feel the best. I've heard that, people say that, and I agree to almost a full extent, but I think that if you are just limber and loose but you lack the- the strength, you are never gonna be as functionally capable as you can. Actually, I- I have this band to sort of show that. Like, if somebody was just completely flexible, right? And you were trying to shoot this band across the table, I don't have a lot of tension to be able to generate to- to get any kind of force to do that.

    4. SB

      (laughs)

    5. JC

      On the contrary, if somebody was, um, strong, right? Maybe even muscle bound. I don't have any flexibility here-

    6. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    7. JC

      ... to again really create much of a elastic output here, or to get a lot of force generation. But if I were to take this band and sort of get that optimal amount of flexibility, but also the strength, in this case, the muscles, the tension, I could shoot that band a lot further a lo- with a lot more force and a lot more ease.

    8. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    9. JC

      Our goal should be, not just athletes should be striving for this, but our goal should be to have the right amount of muscular tension and force capability with the flexibility and mobility, because that's only at that point that you actually can express probably the best performance possible.

  22. 52:06 – 53:56

    Improving Flexibility and Mobility

    1. SB

      How much work have I got to put in to become more flexible and to improve my mobility?

    2. JC

      Not- not much. It just has to be consistent. So I mean, I think if you were to de- devote even five to 10 minutes a day of stretching the areas that are tight, and again, this is very individual. Like one thing that I always stressed even when I was in baseball, every player from me got an individual program and it was based off of a comprehensive assessment. So I would go through the assessment of each player and you would find that either based on position, um, and the demands of that position, body type, you would find certain requirements of a program that needed to be in place to maintain optimal health, that you would get tight in certain areas, you would have things that would need to be strengthened more than others. People have to be willing to A, seek out where these- the deficits are, and B, to actually pursue a program that would work on those deficits. And then when you have that, again, the comprehensive list doesn't have to be an hour a day of doing those things. You prioritize that list and you focus on five to 10 minutes of extra work with it. It's funny, I make a lot of videos on, hey, do this every morning, do that every morning, do this every morning, but it's- it's only appropriate to the people that have the deficits that I highlight in the video.

    3. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    4. JC

      People think they have to combine all of those things into a whole separate career in order to be able to pull them off. That's not necessary. You can- you find the ones that have the biggest impact, but I don't think that having, you know, doing stretching requires long duration of these things. It just simply requires consistency of them.

    5. SB

      You- you say that there are five key exercises you need to be able to maximize your longevity and quality of life that kind of dovetail into this. The single leg Romanian deadlift, the squat and reach, the sumo stance hold, the posterior chain pushup and hip abductions.

    6. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    7. SB

      Can you show me these workouts?

  23. 53:56 – 59:13

    Workout Demo: 5 Key Exercises for Longevity

    1. SB

    2. JC

      For sure. As you can see from the space I'm in, you don't need a whole lot of room to be able to do these exercises. They're incredibly accessible, they're actually scalable with a low barrier of entry so no matter what level of ability you bring to these exercises, you're gonna be able to do them. All right, so the first exercise up here is pretty simple, but it does demand some balance and it also will teach us a very critical biomechanical requirement, which is a hip hinge. So it's called the single leg RDL. What you want to do is you want to hinge, pretending that there's a drawer behind you that's open, you're gonna close it with your butt. Then you reach forward but at the same time you kick back the opposite leg and engage the glute on that side, lifting it up to create a bit of a counterbalance. So your goal is to see if you can get even up to 10 without losing your balance or having that other foot have to contact the ground. Next exercise is something that we call a squat and- and reach and what we do is we get down to the ground like this, down to a squatting position, and we anchor our elbows into the sides of our knees. Okay? And then from here, we post up on one hand, reach up and rotate.... and follow it with your head as you go up as high as you can into the sky. Now, the goal here is to try to hold this position for up to 60 seconds. That is what is lost when we get into these chronic positions like this, right? With our devices at our computers, we get into this rounded thoracic spine, this upper s- portion of the spine. Doing this will give us the mobility that we're lacking. So, the next thing is something we call a sumo squat stance. It's a squat stance hold and it's based off of something called the horse stance. Which again, we work on getting hip mobility and hip stability, right? And again, we're gonna still work on the hip in all three planes. So, what we do is we get down, feet wide, and squat down into this position here. Now, the beginner version of this is to simply keep your elbows on your thighs for a little bit of support. But what I want to see is tall of a chest as I can get, the same way that we just did through that rotation to maintain that area of the spine, that thoracic spine, in getting extended. 'Cause we know that when that spine is extended, the shoulders will go with it and the posture will get away from this position and more to this open, upright position. If we don't do it in that beginner format, then what we're gonna do is cross the hands over, okay? Get in that down position, reach up and out, okay? That is a 30-second hold, up to a 60-second hold depending upon how far you can take it. The next thing we do is, we gotta work on that upper body a little bit. So the upper body, you should still be able to do the exercise that is oftentimes the benchmark for upper body strength, which is the pushup. But we can do it in a way where we get bigger benefits, both front and back side. So, we call this a posterior chain pushup. For a pushup, you want those hands underneath the shoulders, okay? I'll demonstrate one, then we'll do it together. You wanna be able to push up all the way to full extension. You also wanna have tightness through your quads and glutes. So, you squeeze your butt together, you straighten your knees out by contracting your quads, and then you get a good firm holding plank position here. Now, when you go down, normally people would stop here or they wouldn't come up all the way. You go all the way down to the ground. At this point, you slide your hands out in front of you, point your toes, keep those quads contracted, squeezed tight, and then lift up into what we call a Superman. Right from here, you're gonna train all the muscles in your posterior chain, from the back of your heels all the way up to the tip of your fingers. All right. Come down, slide it back, come up into that good firm pushup. Don't lose any of that stability. Come down, slide up, and lift. The final thing is something that looks so darn simple, but it actually has a lot of functional carryover. We're talking about just a sideline hip abduction, okay? And what we do is we get in this position here, we position our toe down in front of us. You wanna basically point your toe down into the ground. Okay? From there, you're gonna slide your leg back behind you, okay, as far as you can take it, and then lift up. And right when you do that final lift, you're gonna feel a contraction right here in the glutes. In particular, in the glute medius. That's the muscle that's controlling that rotational element of your hip joint, and the stability and the strength that's needed to propel your body even on a regular walk without your hips dropping down side to side. You don't want to let that happen to you. You wanna be able to hold this position for 30 to 60 seconds. Some of the mistakes people make is, in order to feel like they're getting a lift, they'll just rotate their body to let the hip flexor do the lifting. Remember, we don't need the hip flexor to do the lifting. We want the glute medius to do the lifting, so you need to make sure that you're rotated forward the entire time. And that's it. There's the five essentials. Quick, simple, and incredibly effective. No fancy equipment, no gym required, just a little bit of space and consistency. Now, back to the Diary of a CEO studio.

  24. 59:13 – 1:00:13

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    1. JC

    2. SB

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  25. 1:00:13 – 1:03:00

    Why These 5 Exercises Matter for Longevity

    1. SB

      And what- what is the context there with those workouts? Why- why'd you choose those workouts, and what do these kind of signal? Are you saying that if I'm able to do those, then there's a probability that I have the strength and flexibility conducive of longevity?

    2. JC

      Yeah. Those are good standard exercises that will measure at a- at a high level how much of a deficit you've acquired over the years from not doing them. So, you should maintain the ability to do those exercises, because they're gonna reflect the global approach, at least, to working on flexibility in your groin or working on the strength in your hip abductors. 'Cause the hip abductors, if you look at most leg exercises, the squat, the deadlift, they're occurring in the sagittal plane, which is this front to back plane. One of my favorite exercises of all time is the lunge, right? Because I- I love the exercise. But it's still occurring front to back in this plane here.... getting exercises that work the other two planes, and mostly through rotation, but working this frontal plane, this side-to-side, is really important to producing a complete person, right? With complete levels of strength. And because they're not the primary exercises that do that, like that side-lying hip raise that, that we, that I show you, is not one of the big exercises or most important that are gonna be up on your list. You're gonna do your squats first and you're gonna maybe not never do those. But it doesn't mean that that muscle didn't matter, right? Th- Those muscles are there for a reason and they need to be developed. I, I remember so many times taking some of the most powerful baseball players, the leading home run hitters, and then testing their hip internal or external stre- uh, rotation strength, and it being incredibly weak, like incredibly weak. And you say to yourself, "How is that even possible?" Because it was never actually directly trained. And does it have a carryover? Obviously, they're doing really, really well in terms of their performance on the field. I still think it would have a carryover to improve performance on the field, but more importantly, one of the players in question actually wound up having a lot of knee pain throughout his, his career. And there were missed games because of knee pain. What, what could have his career stats have looked like? They're already Hall of Fame-worthy, but what could his career stats have looked like if he didn't miss all those games? So, they may not have improved performance directly, but they could have kept them healthier and having other issues be avoided by doing them. So, I think that these types of smaller movements are really revealing of what might be going on underneath and the nice thing about those is that anybody can do them. Like, it doesn't require a gym, doesn't require an elaborate setup. Uh, they're really good assessment tools for people who just wanna see where

  26. 1:03:00 – 1:11:11

    Most Important Functional Movement: Thoracic Spine Rotation

    1. JC

      they stand.

    2. SB

      Well, why did you bring the skeleton with you with the bowtie?

    3. JC

      (laughs) The bowtie, I mean, he came dressed even more than I did.

    4. SB

      (laughs)

    5. JC

      I, um, I got my T-shirt, but this is Raymond. So, he, he... X-ray is his full name and then Raymond became his, uh, short name. So, I, I broke him out, God, I, probably in 2011 or '12, and he became a fan favorite pretty quickly. But I think people liked the visual. And for me, he's not the most mobile guy. He's lost his lower arm. He doesn't have another arm on this side, and he doesn't really move that well. But what is important is-

    6. SB

      He's also lost his legs.

    7. JC

      He's lost his legs. I got a leg over there, if we need it.

    8. SB

      Okay.

    9. JC

      But the spine. See, for me, again, I focus a lot on the ability to function in space and rotation is probably the area of biggest deficit. It's what we lose the most, and the reason for that is because the area of the spine that's most responsible for functional rotation of the torso is gonna be here in the thoracic spine. So, what that is, is anybody that wants to measure on themself, it's right at the bottom of the, of the neck. So, the base of the neck, the height of the shoulders, and it runs down just to below the ribcage. So, right where the ribcage ends is where the thoracic spine ends. It has so many far-reaching implications because it shares its range of motion between two different directions. So, its ability to go front to back, again, he can bend forward and back, we can slump forward, we can go back, right? You wanna have ideally about 40 degrees of flexion in that area and about 25 degrees of extension through that area. And just us sitting here alone, you know, I, we probably tended to get a little bit of this posture while we were getting comfortable and talk and we kinda get a little bit rounded out. When you use up motion in this direction, and imagine what that looks like when people are on their phones or at a desk all day, you're gonna start to lose the motion and into extension, you're gonna get too flexed. Well, e- every time you lose a degree into flexion, you actually lose a direct degree into rotation. So, you're, 'cause you're sharing that motion. The motion's only available in a combined way. So, if you wanna take up motion in this direction, there's gonna be less motion available here. If, I have a, uh, a thing if you let me grab this and put this over your back.

    10. SB

      Over my back?

    11. JC

      Yeah, just like this.

    12. SB

      Like this?

    13. JC

      Right, yeah. Now, allow yourself to slump forward. Pretend you're on that phone, right? (laughs) get there. Now, just turn from the shoulders in one direction, slumped over. Okay? Now, take a peek down the barrel of that thing, you know, behind you and see where you're pointed and w- how, about how far rotated you are.

    14. SB

      Yeah.

    15. JC

      All right, cool. Now, come back. Reset yourself. Now, take back that mobility that you lost through your thoracic spine. Again-

    16. SB

      Looks like I'm getting cramp in my back. (laughs)

    17. JC

      (laughs) There's your, your rotator cuff. So, get yourself up right now. Nice posture. Act like I'm, I'm watching, right? So, get there. Now go ahead and rotate again in that direction. How much more did you get?

    18. SB

      Yeah, I got another, like, it's, like, 20%.

    19. JC

      Right. (laughs)

    20. SB

      30, 40%.

    21. JC

      Yeah. So, maintaining thoracic extension maintains your ability to rotate. The ability to rotate in space is one of the most important functional requirements we have. When you're f- when you're falling as you get older, you're likely reaching spontaneously to grab something to regain control before you crash down and maybe break a hip.

    22. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    23. JC

      Functionally as an athlete, your ability to perform is all about rotation. You know, you don't usually just move in one plane like this. If you're a football player, American or not, you're rotating all the time. You generate force as a soccer player, you know, by kicking across your body, right?

    24. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    25. JC

      By throwing a baseball, it's all about rotation. You need to hold onto rotation, but what, what we lose is the ability to extend at our spine. By the age of between 50 and 60, people will have lost 25 to 35% of their ability, their mobility in this area.

    26. SB

      You see it as well.

    27. JC

      It's horrible. You see it.

    28. SB

      You see it when people get older. They look stiff and they kind of look robotic.

    29. JC

      Awful. My grandmother, God bless her soul, she lived to 97 years old.

    30. SB

      Wow.

  27. 1:11:11 – 1:14:26

    Exercises to Prevent Hunching with Age

    1. JC

    2. SB

      What have I got to be doing then at my age? So I'm, I'm 30, in my early 30s now. What have I got to be doing now to make sure that when I get older I'm not hunched over and I am, I do have that full range of mobility?

    3. JC

      Yeah. There's a few things, like, again, anytime you try to approach any of these dysfunctions, you know, we talk about, um, the mobility/flexibility part (clears throat) being the, the foundation of that. But then there's also a strength component, 'cause, like, you can free up the mobility and flexibility, but can you maintain it? The strength is just gonna help you to maintain it. From a mobility/flexibility standpoint, you can simply go up against a wall, right? And what you, what th- what you're supposed to do there is put the back of your head against the wall, th- your upper back against the wall, and your butt against the wall. So you're going as flat as you can, and you put your arms back up against the wall themselves, so the back of your forearms is all up against the wall. Now, one of the requirements to be able to get there is gonna have good mobility or flexibility through your rotator cuff muscles, 'cause your rotator cuff as it gets tight wants to internally rotate your arms. Can you get them back this way? Can you get your elbows forward but your, your, your arms are... You're doing a pretty good job, but you can see-

    4. SB

      Yeah.

    5. JC

      ... I can see some deficits there.

    6. SB

      Yeah. (laughs)

    7. JC

      So can I get in that position? When I'm there, can I then raise them up against that wall flat? And as I do, the only way I'm gonna be able to do that is to maintain that thoracic extension, 'cause what's gonna happen is if you lose that, as soon as you try to raise your arms up, it's just gonna fold you forward from the wall and you're not gonna be able to get up there. You can do stretches where you take that dowel that's, that y- that we had there, you would lay on the ground face down, dowel's over your, over your back like that, and you spread your legs so you look kinda like a, like a, maybe an X with your hands out here and your legs spread, and all you do is you rotate around. So you're trying to basically rotate up towards the ceiling. That dowel's gonna travel back behind you, and you're pretty much isolating the rotation through the low, through that mid-back, through that thoracic spine. So you're getting rotation and extension 'cause it's causing you to do this, the lean backwards.

    8. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    9. JC

      There's another exercise, um, I have, and this is called the bridge and reach-over, and the bridge and reach-over is...... you push up through, you're on your back, you do a regular bridge, like a glute bridge. But then as you get to the top, you reach across your body and try to touch behind you over the opposite shoulder. So again, what are you getting there? You're getting extension through that spine and the rotation together-

    10. SB

      Mm-hmm.

    11. JC

      ... to see if you can combine those movements, and again, take back that range of motion that's being shared between those two functions. These are all things that anybody can do. Like, anybody can do them. And maybe you won't do them well in the beginning because you are restricted, but these are the types of things that improve as you do them. And again, don't, don't look for perfection right away. But the nice thing about these drills is they don't have to be done for more than a few weeks consistently to actually start to see the benefits and to feel what happens when you start to become less restricted here.

    12. SB

      So if I just did five or 10 minutes a day of some of these drills-

    13. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    14. SB

      ... you think the net impact over time would be pretty profound?

Episode duration: 2:15:58

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