Dr. Phil Maffetone: The Future of Athletic Peak Performance

My eye-opening conversation with this radical thinker continues, and we focus on an interesting subject, the future of athletic peak performance.

 

Back when Phil was working on his book, 1:59 he wrote about Eluid Kipchoge, and we start by discussing him and his Nike partnership, and why it is that Phil advises athletes to be careful when committing to sponsors.

 

In Phil’s mind, Kipchoge has not peaked yet as he is only 34 years old, so he poses the question: “What is going to be the nudge for Kipchoge?” for him to reach 1:59. Phil imagines that running barefoot would be the key to pushing him under the 2 minute mark, based off the fact that Kipchoge grew up running barefoot. This is what led him to develop the “spring mechanism” - when your (bare) foot hits the ground, the foot absorbs that gravitational energy, which is stored mostly in the tendons of the foot and the leg, and the body is then able to take that energy and convert it into mechanical energy.

 

“A bio-mechanical balancing act” is the term Phil has coined to describe athletes who deal with a huge amount of wear and tear on their muscles during training - even the people who train properly. The joints, bones, ligaments, and soft issue are all affected, but it is the muscles that bear the most weight (pun intended!) and therefore, need to recover. Phil uses the analogy of a race-car: if you never fine tune your engine, you simply won’t run as well. Similarly, he has always worked to help athletes balance their muscles, sometimes literally up until the moments before they started running - it’s that important.

 

As Phil explains, a lot can be learned by simply evaluating someone’s gait and posture - if you look at someone’s gait, and you see any irregularity, then you know it’s from muscle imbalance. The next step is to identify the cause of that imbalance, after which Phil will use biofeedback to correct it. When it comes to selecting the right practitioner you, Phil suggests going with someone who’s experienced with working with athletes and understands how diet affects the muscles. At the end of the day, he says, “I don’t care how you fix muscle imbalance as long as you actually correct it” and advises asking around and doing your research to figure out who does muscle testing.

 

When it comes to marathons, “People are slowing down, and they have been for decades,” Phil comments. This is obviously tied to a general increase in excess body fat, and Phil emphasizes that diet actually comes before training, as it greatly affects it. The bottom line is, “You cannot run away from a bad diet.”

 

Should we rethink the premise of certain endurance goals that have endured? Is it a young person’s game that begins to become unhealthy once we hit a certain age? Not at all, says Phil. Age is not the factor - it is the health and fitness level of the individual that matters most, but of course, there are always outliers in any field.

 

We examine the boundaries of intense workouts - how do you know when you’ve pushed it too far? - and Phil explains what muscle soreness signifies, as well as what you need to do in order to steer clear of pain, fatigue, and soreness. We then wrap up with why you need to prioritize warming up (it’s equal in importance to getting adequate protein!) and why you need to avoid synthetic vitamins. Regardless of how fit you are, your athletic goals, or age, you will surely benefit from this informative episode thanks to Phil’s amazing advice and truly extensive knowledge of the human body.

TIMESTAMPS:

Years ago, Dr. Maffetone predicted athletes breaking the 2 hour marathon record. [04:28]

Phil asks how much are you going to let your sponsors dictate your public appearances? [07:31]

Eliud Kipchoge grew up running barefoot.  How does performance change with shoes? [11:00]

The wear and tear on the body primarily comes for the muscles. [14:06]

If you look at someone’s gait and posture and see irregularity, it is because there’s muscle imbalance. [17:11]

If there is muscle imbalance, what kind of practitioner does one want? [19:08]

As a whole, except for the elite athletes, people running marathons are slowing down due to excess body fat. [21:04]

Do we need to rethink our goals as we advance in years? [26:22]

What about the explosive sports? [30:39]

If you were a jock back in the day, are there some modifications that you would make to the training approach on account of being 50 or 60? [33:53]

Having a great aerobics system is a requirement. [36:31]

No pain, no gain? [41:37]

How do you evaluate the intensity of a workout? [43:21]

When you get sore, the muscle is weaker. [47:10]

What you want to do is avoid pain, fatigue, and soreness. Here’s how. [51:55]

You can train the brain to contract more muscle fibers. [54:59]

People who put on a lot of bulk are not necessarily stronger. [58:32]

Warming up before doing these exercises is important as well is getting enough protein.. [01:05:16]

Synthetic vitamins can hurt. If your vitamin D is not at a good level, there’s no way you can perform, even if you do everything else right.  [01:07:10]

 

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