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Huberman Lab
Fitness Toolkit: Protocol & Tools to Optimize Physical Health
Oct 17, 2022
01:55:16
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Quick takeaways
- Endurance training is crucial for cardiovascular fitness and overall health, and should include a long, slow workout once a week.
- Training legs on Monday is important for building a strong foundation of overall fitness and stimulating metabolic processes throughout the week.
- Heat-cold contrast therapy, such as alternating between sauna sessions and cold exposure, offers a range of benefits including improved cardiovascular function and recovery.
- Training the muscles of the torso in a push-pull fashion, along with neck training, is time-efficient and helps achieve strength, hypertrophy, and balance.
- High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is an effective way to improve cardiovascular fitness and can be done using an assault bike or air-dine bike for short bursts of intense exercise.
Deep dives
Importance of Fitness for Overall Health
Fitness is vitally important for cardiovascular health, strength, endurance, lifespan, and health span. It is crucial for maintaining healthy hormonal function and cardiovascular function. Fitness protocols are powerful for developing all aspects of fitness. However, with an overwhelming amount of information available, it can be challenging to navigate. This podcast episode aims to synthesize science-based tools and provide a general template that can be customized to maximize all aspects of fitness.
The Power of Endurance Training
Endurance training is essential for cardiovascular fitness. A long, slow endurance workout is recommended once a week, such as a 60-75 minute jog in zone two cardio or a long hike. This workout helps to build or maintain the capacity for long-distance cardio without excessive fatigue or breathlessness. Progressive overload can be achieved by increasing time, speed, or adding weight, such as using a weight vest. Endurance training contributes to improved blood sugar regulation, metabolism, and overall health.
Leg Day: Strength and Hypertrophy
Training legs on Monday provides a strong foundation for overall fitness. Leg workouts focus on quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. By training the large leg muscles, metabolic processes are set in motion throughout the week. Leg training involves exercises that target the muscle in both contracted and stretched positions. The workout includes warm-up, followed by working sets with heavier weights and lower rep ranges or moderate weights and higher rep ranges. Leg training twice a week, directly and indirectly, helps maintain or build leg strength and enhances overall strength and hormone release.
Tuesday: Heat-Cold Contrast Therapy
On Tuesdays, heat-cold contrast therapy is recommended. This involves alternating between hot sauna sessions and cold exposure, such as cold showers or ice baths. Heat-cold contrast therapy offers numerous benefits for overall health and fitness. It can improve cardiovascular function, aid in recovery, reduce inflammation, and enhance mental well-being. However, caution should be exercised, and heat conditioning should be built up gradually before engaging in intense heat exposures.
Accelerating recovery with heat and cold contrast
The speaker emphasizes the use of heat and cold contrast therapy to accelerate recovery from previous workouts. He mentions that he personally uses sauna and ice baths, but suggests alternatives such as hot baths followed by cold showers. The goal is to improve cardiovascular function and brain health by maximizing the constriction and dilation process of blood vessels through heat and cold exposure.
Training the torso and neck for overall fitness
The podcast episode discusses the importance of training the muscles of the torso, including the chest, shoulders, and back, in a push-pull fashion. The speaker explains that this type of training is time-efficient and helps achieve overall strength, hypertrophy, and balance. He also highlights the significance of training the neck for stability, safety, and improved performance in other exercises.
High-intensity interval training and flexibility
The podcast episode touches upon high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and its role in tapping into strength and hypertrophy gains. The speaker explains that HIIT workouts should be spaced out from leg workouts to allow for proper muscle recovery. Additionally, the episode briefly discusses the benefits of static stretching for flexibility, suggesting specific stretches for different muscle groups and emphasizing the importance of relaxation and proper breathing during stretching sessions.
High intensity interval training for cardiovascular fitness
High intensity interval training (HIIT) is an effective way to improve cardiovascular fitness. The speaker recommends using an assault bike or air-dine bike for 20-30 second all-out sprints, followed by 10 seconds of rest and repeating for 8-12 rounds. This workout gets the heart rate near or at maximum, and can be adjusted based on age and fitness level. It also provides activation and adaptation in leg muscles, making it a great alternative to traditional leg workouts.
Arms, calves, and neck workout as part of the weekly routine
Saturday's workout focuses on training arms, calves, and neck muscles. The speaker suggests incorporating exercises such as dumbbell curls, incline curls, dips, and chin-ups to target these muscle groups. The workout indirectly stimulates the torso muscles, ensuring overall strength and hypertrophy. By following a specific weight and repetition scheme, alternating between heavier weights and lower reps to lighter weights and higher reps, this routine promotes muscle growth and development in the targeted muscle groups.
4.
Soleus Push-Ups Are a Great Way to Improve Blood Sugar Regulation and Metabolism
3min
I describe a fitness protocol that maximizes all the major sought-after aspects of physical fitness, including strength, endurance and flexibility. I discuss fundamentals of resistance training protocols, including repetitions, sets, inter-set and inter-workout rest periods and periodization of intensity and volume to improve strength and hypertrophy. I also explain how to integrate this with endurance training across the week by controlling the duration, timing and intensity of cardiovascular workouts. I also cover science-based protocols on leveraging the mind-body connection, deliberate breathing (during and after exercise), stretching, deliberate heat and cold exposure, and non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) for better workout performance and faster recovery. Further, I tackle a range of real-world issues that can affect a consistent training schedule, such as whether you should train if you are sick, have had a poor night of sleep or had a stressful event and how to start training again after a break and whether you should train in a fasted or fed state. Physical fitness is a key variable for immediate and long-term health. This episode provides a modifiable “foundational” template that can be adjusted based on your current fitness level, goals, time constraints, and access to different types of equipment.
For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com.
Thank you to our sponsors
AG1: https://athleticgreens.com/huberman
LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/hubermanlab
Waking Up: https://wakingup.com/huberman
Momentous: https://livemomentous.com/huberman
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Foundational Protocol for Fitness
(00:04:35) Tool: Soleus (Calf) Push-Ups, Glucose Utilization & Metabolism
(00:13:49) Sponsor: LMNT
(00:18:53) Core Principles of Fitness & Modifiable Variables
(00:23:37) Day 1: Long Endurance Workout
(00:34:38) Day 2: Leg Resistance Training, Strength & Hypertrophy
(00:36:13) Sponsor: AG1
(00:39:22) Key Principles of Resistance Training
(00:51:10) Day 3: Heat & Cold Exposure, Recovery
(01:00:35) Day 4: Torso & Neck Resistance Training
(01:09:55) Day 5: Moderate Intensity Cardiovascular Training, Running Alternatives
(01:16:43) Day 6: High-Intensity Interval Training, Maximum Heart Rate
(01:24:10) Day 7: Arms, Neck & Calves Resistance Training
(01:28:45) Flexibility of Foundational Protocol, Workout Spacing
(01:33:00) Tool: Mind-Muscle Contraction, Physiological Sighs
(01:37:10) Safety & Endurance/Cardiovascular Workouts
(01:38:32) Tool: Stress or Poor Sleep & Workouts, Recovery & NSDR
(01:41:20) Should You Train Fasted or Fed?
(01:43:58) Tool: Static Stretching & Flexibility, Irradiation & Resistance Training
(01:49:10) Tool: Hanging from a Bar & Fitness Metric
(01:50:16) Should You Train Sick?, Ramping Training
(01:53:33) Tool: Deliberate Slow Breathing & Recovery
(01:55:00) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Momentous Supplements, Huberman Lab Premium, Neural Network Newsletter, Social Media
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