Optimize Your Exercise Program with Science-Based Tools | Jeff Cavaliere

(Upbeat music) Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, my guest is Jeff Cavaliere. Jeff Cavaliere holds a Master of Science in Physical Therapy and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist. He did his training at the University of Connecticut Storrs, one of the top five programs in the world in physical therapy and sports medicine. I discovered Jeff Cavaliere over 10 years ago from his online content. His online content includes information about how to train for strength, how to train for hypertrophy, which is muscle growth, how to train for endurance, as well as how to rehabilitate injuries, to avoid muscular imbalances, nutrition and supplementation. I've always found his content to be incredibly science-based, incredibly clear, sometimes surprising, and always incredibly actionable. It is therefore not surprising that he has one of the largest online platforms for fitness, nutrition, supplementation, and injury rehabilitation. Jeff has also worked with an enormous number of professional athletes and has served as head physical therapist and assistant strength coach for the New York Mets. Again, the content that Jeff Cavaliere has posted online has been so immensely useful to me over the years that I was absolutely thrilled to get the chance to sit down with him and ask him about everything from how to train in terms of how to split up the body parts that you train across the week, how to integrate strength training and endurance training, when to stretch, how to stretch. Indeed, we talked about nutrition. We talk a bit about supplementation. We talk about how to really avoid creating imbalances in muscle and in neural control over muscle. So one thing that's really wonderful about Jeff is he really has an understanding of not just how muscles and bones and tendons and ligaments work together, but how the nervous system interfaces with those. We talked about the mental side of training, including when to bring specific concentration to the muscles that you're training and when to think more about how to move weights through space and think more about the movements overall. I'm certain that you'll find the conversation that we held to be immensely useful and informative for your fitness practices and also for how you mentally approach fitness in general and how to set up a lifelong fitness practice, one that will give you the strength that you desire, one that will give you the aesthetic results that you desire, one that will set you up for endurance and cardiovascular health, basically an overall fitness program. I really feel this is where Jeff Cavaliere shines above and beyond so many of the other PTs and fitness so-called influencers that are out there. Again, everything is grounded in science, everything is clear, and everything is actionable. And while we do cover an enormous amount of information during today's episode, if you want to dive even deeper into that information, you can go to athleanx.com, where you'll find some of Jeff's programs. You can also find him at Athlean-X on YouTube. There, you will find videos, for instance, like the how to repair or heal from lower back pain, something that I actually followed directly long before I ever met Jeff, has over 32 million views, and that is not by accident. It is because the protocols there, again, are surprising and actionable. They relieved my back pain very quickly without surgery. So I'm (laughs) immensely grateful for that content, and it extends into everything from, again, hypertrophy, endurance, and strength training, and so on. Again, it's athleanx.com as the website, Athlean-X on YouTube, and also Athlean-X on Instagram. The Huberman Lab Podcast is proud to announce that we've partnered with Momentous Supplements. We've done that for several reasons. First of all, the quality of their supplements is exceedingly high. Second of all, we wanted to have a location where you could find all of the supplements discussed on the Huberman Lab Podcast in one easy-to-find place. You can now find that place at livemomentous.com/huberman. In addition, Momentous Supplements ship internationally, something that a lot of other supplement companies simply do not do. So that's terrific whether or not you live in the US or you live abroad. Right now, not all of the supplements that we discuss on the Huberman Lab Podcast are listed, but that catalog of supplements is being expanded very rapidly, and a good number of them that we've talked about, some of the more prominent ones for sleep and focus, and other aspects of mental and physical health are already there. Again, you can find them at livemomentous.com/huberman. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero-cost-to-consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is Athletic Greens, now called AG1. I started taking AG1 way back in 2012, so I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast. The reason I started taking AG1 and the reason I still take AG1 twice a day is that it covers all of my foundational health needs for mental health, physical health, and performance. As I mentioned earlier, it has vitamins and minerals that cover any deficiencies I might have in my diet. It also has probiotics, and the probiotics are key for supporting the so-called gut microbiome. The gut microbiome are trillions of little microbacteria that live in our gut, from our throat all the way down to the base of our gut, that support everything from our immune system to our hormone health to the so-called gut-brain axis. That is, our gut and our brain are in direct communication with one another in ways that support our mood, our ability to think, and overall brain health. If you'd like to try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim a special offer. They'll give you five free travel packs, which make it very easy to mix up Athletic Greens while you're on the road, and they'll give you a year's supply of vitamin D3 K2. Vitamin D3 and K2 are essential for an enormous number of aspects of your mental health, physical health, and performance by impacting things like hormone regulation, calcium regulation, and cardiovascular health. Again, go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim that special offer. Today's episode is also brought to us by Eight Sleep. Eight Sleep makes smart mattress covers with heating and sleep tracking, and importantly, cooling capacity.I've talked many times before on this podcast and on another podcast about the close relationship between temperature and sleep. That is, your body temperature has to drop by about one to three degrees in order to fall asleep, and waking up involves heating up of your body by about one to three degrees. Now, some people run cold during the night. They need to heat their sleeping environment. Other people run too hot during the night. I'm one such person, I tend to wake up in the middle of the night, if I get warm at all. With Eight Sleep, I'm able to cool my sleeping environment in a very precise way, even so precise that I can control the temperature at the beginning, middle, and end of the night so that I fall asleep easily, stay deeply asleep, and wake up feeling better than I've ever felt before. The Pod Pro Cover by Eight Sleep is their most advanced solution on the market for thermal regulation. It pairs dynamic cooling and heating with biometric tracking if you want to use that. Also has this nice feature that it'll vibrate in the morning to wake you up. I rather like that vibration feature too. You can add the cover to any mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55 degrees Fahrenheit or as hot as 110 degrees Fahrenheit. So again, it can be customized to your sleep needs. If you want to try Eight Sleep, you can go to eightsleep.com/huberman and check out the Pro Pod Cover and save $150 at checkout. They currently ship within the USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Again, that's eightsleep.com/huberman to save $150 at checkout. Today's episode is also brought to us by ROKA. ROKA makes eyeglasses and sunglasses that are of the absolute highest quality. The company was founded by two all-American swimmers from Stanford, and everything about ROKA eyeglasses and sunglasses is made with performance in mind. That said, the aesthetics of ROKA eyeglasses and sunglasses is superb. I've spent a lifetime working on the biology of the visual system, and I can tell you that your visual system has to contend with an enormous number of challenges in order to be able to see clearly. ROKA understands this and has developed their eyeglasses and sunglasses in a manner such that when you move from, say, a shady area To a brightly lit area, or when you are in different lit environments indoors, you can always see with crystal clarity. And they won't slip off if you sweat. In fact, they were originally designed for exercise, you can wear them while running or cycling, but they have a terrific aesthetic. So unlike a lot of so-called performance or exercise glasses that are out there that make people frankly look like cyborgs, in my opinion, ROKA eyeglasses and sunglasses look terrific. You'd be proud to wear them to work or out to dinner or when you exercise. If you want to try ROKA glasses, you can go to roka.com, that's R-O-K-A .com, and enter the code Huberman to save 20% off on your first order. Again, that's ROKA, R-O-K-A .com and enter the code Huberman at checkout. And now for my discussion with Jeff Cavaliere. Jeff, such a pleasure for me to have you here.