The Science of Human Performance: Part 3 with Dr. Rachele Pojednic

Jun 29, 2025

Dr. Rachele Pojednic, Director of Scientific Research & Education at Restore Hyper Wellness and a Stanford lecturer, dives into the science of human performance. She discusses the interconnectedness of holistic health practices with longevity, highlighting nutrition, sleep, and social connections. Rachele emphasizes the importance of effective science communication, advocating for infographics to bridge gaps in public understanding. She also critiques the impact of misinformation on health perceptions and calls for proactive health management over profit-driven solutions.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Holistic Health Beats Single Mechanisms

Many small biological mechanisms like mTOR signaling and mitochondrial function are interconnected.
Focusing on overall healthy behaviors like nutrition and exercise impacts all these mechanisms simultaneously.

ADVICE

Prioritize Foundations Before Details

Dive deep into biochemistry only if you want to be a scientist.
For general health, focus on foundational behaviors like nutrition, physical activity, and sleep first.

INSIGHT

Gratitude Enhances Lifestyle Pillars

Lifestyle medicine pillars align with common health factors like move, eat, think, recover, and connect.
Adding gratitude enhances these pillars by supporting mental and emotional health.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

MOPs & MOEs is ⁠⁠⁠⁠powered by TrainHeroic!⁠⁠⁠⁠

To continue the conversation, ⁠⁠⁠⁠join our Discord!⁠⁠⁠⁠ We have experts (including Rachele!) standing by to answer your questions.

In the final part of this series we cover several topics we didn't get enough clarity on in the first two segments: an update on MAHA, Lifestyle Medicine, and how research could be better communicated.

Rachele Pojednic, PhD, EdM, FACSM, is the Director of Scientific Research & Education at Restore Hyper Wellness, an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University and the Director of Education at Stanford Lifestyle Medicine. In addition, she serves as a Research Associate at the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine at Harvard Medical School and is an award-winning Instructor at the Harvard Extension School. Previously, she was a tenure-track faculty member at Norwich University and Simmons University.

For the past decade, Dr Pojednic’s work has examined nutrition, supplementation and physical activity interventions on muscle physiology, performance and recovery, as well as muscle related chronic disease. She has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the Vermont Biomedical Research Network (VBRN) an NIH IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) program. She has published extensively on vitamin D and cannabidiol (CBD) supplementation and their effects on skeletal muscle in health and disease, muscle physiology and aging with a focus on sarcopenia, physiologic metrics of muscle recovery in warfighters, the effects of nutrition and exercise interventions on diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, and educational models for healthcare professionals focused on nutrition and exercise.

Dr. Pojednic received her PhD in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition & Exercise Physiology from Tufts University. She also holds a Masters in Education in Physical Education and Coaching from Boston University and a BS in Cardiopulmonary and Exercise Science from Northeastern University.

She holds a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) certification from National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and is board certified Health Coach from the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaches (NBHWC).