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Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes to find the most powerful and practical science-based tools for mental health, physical wellness, and productivity. I'm Andrew Huberman, a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. And now my conversation with Dr. Andy Galpin. Dr. Professor Andy Galpin, I am very pleased to welcome you here. You are a veritable treasure trove of information about physical training and optimization to achieve specific goals and results. How should I, or anyone else, think about my level of fitness in terms of a realistic assessment of whether I am as
fit as I could be and should be, both for health and When it comes to exercise, people usually have two main goals in mind. Goal number one is to achieve a certain appearance. Yes, it's me wanting to be big, or I want to not be too big, or I want to be slim. There is an aesthetic component to almost everything. They want to look a certain way or not look a certain way. Another is functionality. So, I want to be able to perform in a certain way. Again, this definition is different for each person. So, I want to be better at strength. I want to be better at mobility.
I want to have energy throughout the day. Whatever it is. So, there is a certain appeal of aesthetics, and there is a certain appeal of functionality. So, in both of these categories, we want to be in a position where we can figure out, "Where do I need to go with my training so I can be as healthy and fit and achieve the goals that I want now," and also be in a position where I can sustain them over a long period of time. So, this combines both immediate goals. Let's say you're just interested in squatting with a lot of weight. Let's say you're interested in running a 5K with the best time you want. It doesn't matter. It combines this with the desire to have a long period of well-being, to be fit throughout life,
to achieve all of this for as long as possible. Then the question again comes down to how do I figure out which area I need to focus on the most? And why am I not achieving these goals? Or how can I reach them more effectively? And if we look at the big picture, we have to understand that there are several basic components of physical fitness that will be required in all of these categories. And to achieve this, there are several components that need to happen. So today I like to do this during our discussion to define exactly what these concepts are and then look at a whole range of different methods, and we could do this for hours. But we will look at a few of them for different purposes.
What are the main adaptations you can create in your body through exercise? Physiological adaptations can be divided into nine areas. So the first one is what call a skill or a technique. This may be a more efficient run. This could be practicing a skill such as throwing a ball or projectile, swinging a golf club, or something similar. I call it skill development. The second is speed. It's simply moving at a higher speed or with a better rate of acceleration. This is very similar to the next point, which is called power. And power is speed multiplied by force. The next point, of course, in addition to this, is strength or power. These are
really synonyms, are n't they? How efficiently can you move something? Now it is often confused, rather strength, with muscular endurance. So, what I mean is that strength is really a marker of the maximum you can move, or it's the maximum force you can generate in one go. Number five is muscle hypertrophy. And this is the first time we're talking about appearance, not functional outcome. This is the first point that simply shows how big your muscle is. And this is muscle hypertrophy or muscle size. Next comes the muscles. So, this is the number of repetitions you can typically do for a movement. So, think about how many push-ups in a row you can do, how many squats per minute you can do, things that are usually in the range of 5 to 50
reps, and those are almost always local muscles. The push-up test is actually the number of repetitions your triceps, pectorals, and deltoids can perform. This is not cardiovascular endurance. This is not global physiological endurance. It usually affects one or more muscle groups at the same time. This is why you need to run multiple tests for each group. After that, we moved on to point seven, which I call anaerobic capacity. It is more synonymous with maximum heart rate. And now we are not looking at a single movement or muscle group, but a complete physiological limitation. This is the maximum amount of work you can do in, say, 30-45 seconds
, maybe even up to 120 seconds of full-time work. Think about classic interval training. So, how much work can you do at top speed before you experience massive global fatigue? The next stage is maximal aerobic capacity, and that's probably something like the 8 to 15 minute range, where you'll probably reach both your maximum heart rate and your true maximal VO2 uptake (VO2 max). So, this is different from the previous one, where you can't achieve this in seconds. It just takes a few minutes to reach a position where your VO2 max is actually high enough or an indicator of it. Then the last one, number nine, is what I call sustained load. And it's simply your ability to maintain submaximal performance for an extended period of
time without interruption, without any cuts. This is often called steady-state training, or what many people think of when they think, quote, of cardio. But your ability to continue moving without any breaks, changes, or reductions is the last and final adaptation. So if you look at a certain minimum, it's usually 20 minutes of what we're looking for. But more typical would be 20 to 60 minutes. But anything beyond that will still be limited by your long-term endurance. So, your ability to maintain a job for a long time. Can you tell us about the nine different adaptations you mentioned earlier and explain to us how to assess our level of adaptation in each of those nine?
Okay, the first thing we want to talk about is motor skills. Is it really about human movement so that you stay injury-free and can continue training for as long as possible? So, what are the minimum requirements? Now, if you have access to a highly qualified physical therapist or movement specialist, that is the best way to go. Go to them, ask them to identify all your movement patterns, overhead presses, squats, running, all of it. This is your gold standard. However, if you want to do it yourself, here is a very simple four-step solution. So the way I teach is go joint by joint. And so I think of it as just the basics. Your shoulder, elbow, lower back, hip, knee, and ankle.
Good. Now you can do a representative movement for yourself. So, if you do a lot of bench presses, use a bench. If you're doing pull-ups, use pull-ups. If you squat, do it. I would recommend doing an upper body press, an upper body deadlift, a lower body press, and a lower body deadlift. An example would be a push-up, pull-up or incline barbell row, a squat, and then a deadlift. And record the front view and the side view. Uh, probably do three to ten reps per angle, okay? Slow and controlled, and you need to pay attention to four key things. First, you need to pay attention to symmetry. So symmetry is front to back, left to right, and your right limb and your left limb. If they do n't move perfectly, that's okay, but you want to see if
one moves further forward than the other. Does one turn sideways and the other not? Does it move and twitch differently? So, you just need to check and make sure they are stable. Secondly, you need to pay attention to stability. So the key indicators here are things like if you can't control the squat, a controlled squat where your knees don't start shaking. This will be an instability problem. So, can you do the movement slowly? Can you pause at the bottom, maybe for 3 seconds, maybe for 5 seconds or 10? You must have complete control of this movement in all of these joints. Do your hips slide to one side when you stand up? Is one elbow closer to your body when you bench press and the other more spread out? That's what I'm talking about, right? I don't worry
about what angle they should be at or not. You are simply looking for asymmetry or instability. Good. So, again, when you do a push-up, does one elbow start twitching, jerking, and moving in any direction? The third factor is what I call awareness. There are many problems with movement technique that people simply don't know about. And so you will watch them squat. I do this all the time in my classes. I'll show 100 kids squatting, and you'll see terrible squatting technique, and then when you just say to them, "Hey, did you realize that your heels are supposed to be on the floor the whole time you're squatting?", they're like, "Oh, okay." And they can fix it. In fact, this is not a movement defect. It was just a realization. I didn't
know, and at the time I did n't really realize that was happening in that position. So, we want our joints to have a full range of motion, which is number four. So, ankles during a squat, your knees should be able to go as far past your toes as possible while still maintaining good posture, your feet flat on the floor, your, you know, three points of contact, your whole flat foot, and you're not compromising another joint. So, that's all you'll be paying attention to, these four things. Symmetry, stability, awareness, and range of motion in each joint throughout each movement. You can usually do this for one or two repetitions in a couple of seconds. I'm just looking for something absolutely awful, like " can't do it at all," "minor
flaw," or "almost okay." That's all I'm looking for. So, my rating system is 0-1-3. 0 means you are not going to do this exercise because you have a very high acute risk. You might get injured on the first rep tomorrow. For example, a score of one means that there is a minor deficiency. We can probably do it, but we need to be careful with the load and volume. And the other thing- maybe it's perfect, maybe it's not, but go ahead and do it with a sensible protocol, you'll be fine. So, in general, what you need to do is a free method of identifying good movement technique in any of the things you do. What about speed?
I don't really think most people should check this out. If you're a high-performance athlete, we can run a 40-yard dash or we can do, well, different things with a speed sensor on the bar. If you're a weightlifter or something, but for most people, pure speed-it's really maximum speed or acceleration, or two ways we break it down. It's not easy, usually it's not that much of a hassle to check. What about point three, power, which I think you told me earlier was speed times force? The free version here is a simple long jump. So this is a standing, you know, normal position, jump as far in front of you as you can and measure the distance
between where you start and the back of your heel where it lands. The super basic number to pay attention to is your height. So, you should be able to long jump according to your height. If your height is 175 cm, you should reach 175 cm, 185 cm, etc. This will decrease slightly, by about 15% for women. They just don't have as much strength overall as men, so you need to reduce that a little bit. But this is a very approximate figure. If you looked at a high-performance NFL player, if he's 6'2" tall, he would jump about 9-11 feet. In this particular test, we are not looking for optimization. You are looking for warning signs. If you can jump to the height of your body, you'll be fine. To clarify, there is no running approach here. You will stand still. Yes, you
can swing, bounce as much as you want. You will bounce back. So, you will measure the distance from the tip of your toe. So basically, stand behind the line and then to the furthest point where you land. So, essentially, the worst possible outcome. Not the best because your feet won't land symmetrically. One will probably be a little further. Simply use the furthest point behind your back heel and move from there. So, strength is really important. You need to measure this in several areas, and we'll start with grip strength. You can do this in two ways. You can buy a grip dynamometer. They cost anywhere from $20 to $100.
They used to cost hundreds of dollars when I was in school, but now you can buy them on literally any website for $25. So, technically, it's not free. I know your whole story about free protocols, but $25, I call that effectively free. You can bring it and protest. It's just a little device that you squeeze and do, I would say, your right hand and your left hand. They will give you the value in kilograms. You need to look for something like a minimum score of 40 kilos. Ideally, your weight would be over 60, it would be very good. You want to make sure that the difference between your left and right hands is at least 10%. Your non-dominant hand shouldn't actually be much weaker in this test. So you will often see that the
non-dominant hand can often be stronger, as the dominant hand is more responsible for precision movements, writing, etc. If you are male and weigh less than 40 kilograms on the dynamometer, we will need to practice this. If you are a woman, the weight is not much lower, but about 35 kilograms is the limit. Another option you can do is just hang up. That is, you can hold onto any bar, ideally one that is thin enough that you can wrap your whole hand around it. Something like going to the gym and jumping on any horizontal bar or pull-up rack. In general, we should be able to hang for at least 30 seconds - that's what we're aiming for. 30-50 seconds is probably good, but it could probably be improved. If you hold the weight for more than 60 seconds, I'm usually
quite happy. If you're extremely large, this thing doesn't You know, if you weigh 112 kg, and even if you're thin, it's just hard for you to hang and hold 112 kg. Conversely, if you weigh 65 kg, even if you are unhealthy, you will be able to hang for a long time. It's just not that much weight to carry. So, just rough numbers to start with. So, this is grip strength. What about the strength of other parts of the body? You can do an upper body strength test if you want, although technically we don't do it very often. What I'm usually more interested in is the leg extension test. And the reason I like it is because squatting
with a barbell is better. Barbell squats are. Look, that's my thing. This is my life, right? It's just very technically demanding. And if it's difficult, you need observers, you need comfort. There is a lot needed here. So, for the average person, the leg extension test is fairly standardized. You don't have to worry about the technique, and people can just pick it up and get started. So you need to pay attention to a few standards that you want to achieve. Again, the very simple answer here is body weight. Can you do bodyweight leg extensions? That's a pretty good number you want to achieve. If you are over 40, this can drop by about 10% every ten years and you will still be in pretty good shape. So if
you're 50 years old and weigh 170 pounds, if you can do 160, you're in pretty good shape. And then you can just reduce it again by about 10% every ten years after 40. Any of these strength tests don't necessarily have to be performed at a true technical one- rep max. You can use what are called repetition conversion equations. So, set a load that you think is close to your max and just do it as many times as possible. As long as it's less than five reps total, you can go online and put that into any calculator, and it'll tell you, "Okay, you did three reps with 200 pounds." Your one-rep max is probably 215." Well, whatever. So, there is an
equation for estimating. So if you don't want to waste time or are n't quite comfortable hitting your true one- rep max, just find a number that's close enough and do as many as you can, then go online. Again, equations for estimating one-rep max are everywhere. If you go beyond five iterations or so the accuracy of these equations will start to decrease. So don't put something on and say, "I did 12 reps," and then try to figure out what your one- rep max is. He will come closer. If you start moving further, your accuracy will just get worse and worse. If none of these options work, I really like another option, which is simply performed with a front squat or a goblet squat. So, you hold the weight in front of your chest, whether a And you need to
hold about half your body weight, go down to the lowest position, and try to hold it for about 45 seconds. So, that's a pretty good number one indicator of your situation. It's hard to be in a bad position for so long with that much load, and with that much core strength and lower back stability. This is more difficult than leg extensions, but much more functional, and it will give you an understanding of many more areas than just the quadriceps. So, 45 seconds at the bottom of the squat. Yes. And then return to the standing position. Yes. And if you can't make a return, I'm not really that worried. But if you can hold that good position without technical failure for those 45 seconds, that's a really good moment. As an introduction, I
want you to hold a third of your body weight for 30 seconds. It is important to add a few caveats regarding strength training. So, there are two that I want to do. First, it assumes you are tech-savvy. So I don't want you to do any exercise to exhaustion or to maximum strength if you're uncomfortable with your technique. So adjust it accordingly. If you are uncomfortable doing a front squat, do leg extensions. If you're uncomfortable with even that, do something else. Therefore, we never want to use maximal testing if it will result in serious acute injury. So, this is the most important signal. Second, your warm-up protocol will have a huge impact on your actual results. And so, whenever you do these tests, especially if you're going to do a test and then I'm
testing again, you want to make sure that the warm-up protocol is standardized. What about hypertrophy? So, what you need to pay attention to is the aesthetic component of hypertrophy. It's entirely up to you. There is no justification. You can decide what you think looks good or not. It doesn't matter. There is a sufficient amount that you need to have, below which it is harmful to your health, regardless of your results. And so the best way to do this is in several ways. Any body composition test can do this. So, whether it's a scan like a DEXA scan, which is the gold standard, or other bioelectrical impedance methods or something else. So, there are a lot of different tests that you can get that are pretty close. Okay. So, what you need to look for
when you get a DEXA scan is a number called FFMI. This stands for fat-free mass index. So, you can look at any number of online calculators. They are all standard. So it does n't really matter where you find them. You don't have to worry about looking up and whether it's right or not or anything like that. So, this will actually tell you if you have enough muscle mass. So the number you want to look for in general is something like: if you're a man, your FFMI should be around 20 or higher. If you're a woman, you need to look for something like 18. So, those are the goals. If you go over 24-25 for a man, that's a lot of muscle mass, assuming you're
pretty lean. Now, if your FFMI is around 24-25, but your body fat is around 40%, you are actually a very, very large person. You are not in the best position. So when we say numbers like that, we're assuming you probably have less than 30% body fat for a man and less than 35 for a woman. So, these are the numbers. There are online calculators. All you really need to know is your total body weight, body fat percentage, and then your height. You can enter these three numbers and then they will show you your FFMI score, which will be adjusted to the adjusted value. Uh, and most of them will actually show you the grading rubric on them, i.e. good, average, bad, etc. But these are the numbers we're looking at. If you, as a man, are under 17
years old, and as a woman, under 15, then we are in the zone of quite serious physiological disorders due to insufficient muscle mass. What about muscular endurance? Is this the point where you're going to tell me I need to do wall sits? So, this is really great. You can run any number of tests here. Standard bar. Can you hold a front plank for 60 seconds? Can you hold a side plank for 45 seconds? If you can do push-ups, we want to be able to replicate that for the average man, we should have no problem doing 25 or more consecutive push-ups. This will be a full elbow block at the top and a full chest touch or almost to the floor. You can do it differently, it doesn't really matter, but just leave the standard score from your pre- and post-tests
if you're trying to mark progress. And for women? So, for those who will lighten the load a little, right? So basically you're looking at 15-that's the marker, like 25 was for men, where I want to see above 15. Uh- huh, and if I do that, we're fine. Anything from five to 15 is a normal number, for example. If your result is less than five, we usually have some problems, and if it is different from one to zero, then for example, now we have zero - that is a problem. So we should be able to do that. Another way to assess muscular endurance is to perform the same strength test you did 5 minutes ago. Which one did you complete? Load it up to 75% and then do it for as many reps as possible. And this is a huge barometer of muscular endurance. So,
if you were able to lift 200 pounds on the leg extension test, lift 75% of that value and perform as many reps as possible. You need to look for more than eight repetitions. If you have less than eight repetitions, then we have a problem with muscular endurance. What about anaerobic capacity? This is more complicated. You need to either go to a lab and do something like a second max test where you will see how much work you can do in those 30 seconds. If you don't have a lot of access to a lab, you can.you can do it with any protocol you like. It could be a sprint. This could be on, for example, an air bike. It could be on a rowing machine, something like that. Anything where you can put in your best effort and not worry about technical issues.
So I usually don't like to do things like kettlebell swings or anything like that. There are simply too many other variables. You should be able to push yourself as hard as you can, knowing that you will reach a state of immense fatigue. Now in the lab, we often use what's called the Bosco protocol: you stand on a force plate and do as many vertical jumps as fast as possible, as high as possible for 60 seconds, and you get completely destroyed in about 45 seconds. So we use either the Wingate protocol or the Bosco protocol. If you want, again, take any of these other places for 30 seconds or so, up to 45 seconds, up to a minute, if you want. It doesn't matter much We don't have standards for these things because
everything will be different. The distance you can cover in 30 seconds on a treadmill will be completely different than sprinting in a field, on an exercise bike, or anywhere else. So what you really want to worry about is whether you can complete it? And how terrible will you feel afterwards? So what you really want to think about is not these protocols, but this is what it's about. You want to consider whether you can get close to your predicted maximum heart rate. So the number we come up with is 220 minus your age. So, if you are 50 years old, 220 minus 50, you should be able to reach a maximum heart rate of around 170 beats per minute. This number is very general. If you don't reach this figure, it doesn't mean you're in the best shape. This is
just an approximate number. So, here's what I want you to do. In this case, your heart rate recovery is a better indicator. So, I want you to get to your maximum heart rate and then check your heart rate recovery. And what you should pay attention to is the recovery of about half a hit per second. You will reach a state of terrible exhaustion, maximum fatigue, check your heart rate, and then do the math, right? Start the timer. Within 60 seconds you should have half a beat per second again. You should restore your heart rate to 30 beats per minute. During the next minute, i.e. the 2-minute recovery, it should be half that again, i.e. 60 beats.
These are approximate figures. And your 3-minute recovery is again half that. So, this is the closest way. If your heart rate recovery is worse, then we know we have a problem with your anaerobic capacity or your cardiovascular capacity. What about the eighth, maximum heart rate? Because what you just described is very similar to your maximum heart rate, it's your VO2 max. So the gold standard here is to go to the lab and do it. So, we can do a VO2 max test where you put on a mask, collect all the gases, and run there. There is a very specific protocol for conducting a true maximal test, and any scientist knows it. If you don't have access to it, you can run a few tests. One of them is called the 12- minute
Cooper test. So, it's just a matter of time. You run as far as you can for 12 minutes and record the distance you cover. Again, you can go to online calculators, enter that distance, and it will show you your approximate VO2 max. So, is this a 12-minute sprint? 12-minute sprint. The maximum distance you can cover in 12 minutes. So it's anywhere from a mile to 2-plus miles, depending on how fit you are. But you just do this 12- minute Cooper test. If you want, you can make a slightly milder version of this.
In fact, there is a 1-mile walk test that you can take. In this case, you need some kind of stopwatch or, ideally, a heart rate monitor. And all you have to do is try to run a mile with a rock on a submaximal test. So you run a mile, time it, record your heart rate at the end, enter that data, and it will again give you estimates of your VO2 max. So it's something like, "Oh God, I can't run 12 minutes as fast as I can," or " I don't want to do this," or we have a lot of those in our executive program. It's something like: "My knee hurts a lot." My back hurts when I run," or something like that. Can I.Okay, and you'll do the walk test, and it's pretty accurate if you do it right. And again, these are all standard calculations. So wherever
you find them, you don't need to worry about the source. So, you just enter your data and it will run on the same equation. Number nine, prolonged stationary exercise. Yes. So, you really want to think of this as a non-standard number. This means you must maintain a constant work output for more than 20 minutes. And for that, I want you to just pick something that was in your lifestyle. So, is there a circle around your house that you can follow? Is there a protocol you like to use before? And you're just going to test your ability, can you keep working non-stop? That's all you need.
Now, ideally, I would personally like to add a little twist here, which is: can you do this with just nasal breathing? That's when I feel really good. If you can last 30 minutes straight without a break, hmm, walking isn't really going to solve the problem unless you're very, very unfit, in which case if walking for 30 minutes without a break is a challenge, well, like here. But, if you can, I want you to move at a pace other than walking. I don't care what zone it is, two, three, four, five, I don't care. Show me that you can work for at least 20 minutes without breaks, without intervals, without downtime, uh, and again, ideally, breathing only through your nose.
How often should we assess our fitness for each of these tasks Well, if you put it that way, I would recommend doing it with a full load once a year. Technically you can do all of this in 2 days. A 3-day split is probably the best option. So if you just say, "Hey, it's like a testing week." I like this at the beginning of the year. Uh, when you change your workouts. Also, once a year, you should probably see a doctor and get a complete blood count. You'll think, "Yeah, but I don't want to give up my workouts this week." Well, I promise you, you won't end this week and think, "I didn't work very hard this week." It will feel great, and then you will have a very good barometer of what exactly you need to change and prioritize in your training for the next quarter,
six months, or wherever. So, in what order should they be performed? Tireless tests that you can do anytime. FFMI, body fat composition, all of these can be done anytime. I usually like to do this as my first action. The reason is that we know that acute exercise can greatly affect things like body composition measurements due to inflammation, water retention, etc. Therefore, the easiest way is to just get it from a 48- hour rest. You want to make sure you don't do any strenuous exercise the day before your body composition test and probably 48 hours before that. So just start with that. Your movement test may be the same.
You don't want to try to assess how well you squat if your body is incredibly sore after your brutal squat test. So try to do these things when you are most fresh. Then what you need to do is any skill, maximum strength or power is expended at the very beginning of the day. Any fatigue happens at the end. So you can easily do it. Good. I'm going to do my strength test, the long jump. You wo n't get tired of it at all. And on the same day, since I've already warmed up enough, I'll now go straight to the leg strength test. And since I'm really warmed up, I'm going to do a leg endurance test right here. So, this is a very common strategy that we use. We do our leg extensions for a maximum of one rep, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, whatever we need to do, come back,
load up to 75%, do as many reps as we can. Boom. You can go straight to the upper body test or the grip strength test or whatever else you want to do. So, you can complete a strength test and a muscular endurance test in one day. You can take a performance diagnostic, a high jump test, strength and muscular endurance, and all of this will be ruled out. You will have to come back on a separate day and take anaerobic tests. It's a 30- second maximum endurance, something like that. However, if you want, you can do this after a long-term test. Your long-term test will again be just a big warm-up. Or you can swap these things around. Or you can do them on different days. You will need to conduct your VO2 max test mostly on a separate day.
Unless you want to repeat your movements or body composition in front of these things. So you really have the opportunity to combine. Ideally, this would most realistically probably take three days. You don't have to be optimal in all of these areas to, quote, be optimal health from this perspective. You just want to make sure, again, that there are no serious performance limitations. That's what we call it, right? We wouldn't want any of these strict restrictions because it would limit you. So you need to raise it to the level of sufficient or alarming, right? And move away from this. If you do that, this thing won't catch up to you. You will be able to continue doing optimization and any other things you have a particular passion for.
That's usually what drives people, right? You exercise to feel better. You exercise because you know it has all these benefits, and gosh, this audience could probably list hundreds of them. But you also train because you generally like to improve at something. Many of us like to have something. So you want to make sure you're not thinking, "Hey, I know you're good at endurance, but you really shouldn't be training anymore." We don't need such a message. Not at all. I want you to love your workouts. So before we wrap up, I want to go back and wrap up, uh, VO2 max numbers, because I don't think I gave you any numbers on that. So, in general, for men, the minimum number we want
to look at is 35 ml per kg per minute, and for women, it would be around 30. We can even push these numbers much higher. Actually, I want to see men over 50. And I won't even be excited until it's over 55. In fact, if I want to see men over 55 , I really want to see women over 50. I want to add another metric to our discussion today, uh, this is just my way of saying thank you, because if there was a metric for the amount of useful information per sentence, you would be at the top of that metric. You have this amazing ability to provide so much knowledge in a clear, concise, and relevant format that is at once interesting, scientifically sound, and practical. So on behalf of everyone listening, and of course, myself as well, I just want to
thank you. Well, I appreciate the compliments and look forward to the next conversation, where we'll jump right into speed, strength, and hypertrophy training, and what evidence-based protocols and best practices exist in these areas.
