Full transcript
0:00[music]
0:06>> If I could go back to my early 20s at
0:08the beginning of my career and focus on
0:10one thing, it wouldn't be just obsessing
0:12over training really hard, it would be
0:14recovery.
0:16All right, so pillar number one is
0:18light. This is why I do my morning
0:20walks, why I obsess over blocking blue
0:22light at night. I have the red tint on
0:23my phone. The light is the most
0:24important signal that our body gets to
0:26tell us when to rest, when to have
0:27energy, when to do different parts of
0:29the day. The thing that we've had that
0:31allows us to know what's going on and
0:32what time of day it is. And the biggest
0:34thing of recovery is honestly just
0:35letting your body know it is time to
0:38recover. [music]
0:38>> What advice would you give for someone
0:40trying to regulate their light exposure?
0:42>> Morning sunlight and then catch the
0:43sunset. So, if it's right before bed or
0:46right when you wake up, wake up a little
0:47bit earlier, just experience natural
0:49light early in the morning and late in
0:51the evening. And then second is just
0:52reducing artificial light as much as
0:54possible. Middle of the day doesn't
0:55really matter, so if you can get your
0:56bulk of work done in the middle of the
0:58day. The best little hack that I've ever
0:59found, you go to accessibility shortcuts
1:02on your phone, and you turn on color
1:04filters, it turns the screen red and at
1:05least reduces some of the artificial
1:08light coming out of it, it makes it more
1:09red. Little things like that actually
1:11help significantly, way more than you
1:13think. And even when I was in prep, I
1:14remember I was often lose sleep and just
1:16be stressed and anxious or hungry or all
1:18the things. And no supplements, but I
1:20didn't want to take melatonin every day.
1:21Nothing really helped me other than
1:23obsessing over a morning walk as soon as
1:25I woke up and an evening walk right when
1:27the sun was going down. And truly, it
1:28sounds like you want cooler biohacks
1:30than that, you want to spend money on
1:32like crazy gadgets, but it's really the
1:34easiest, cheapest thing that you can do
1:35that helps a lot more than you think.
1:39>> [music]
1:45[music]
1:49>> All right, now it's breakfast time. I'm
1:50going to make food, which leads into
1:52pillar number two, which is nutrients. I
1:55I the word nutrients because the goal
1:56here is to not just talk about protein,
1:58which is the most obvious thing that
1:59everyone always talks about, but rather
2:00the micronutrients, the minerals,
2:02vitamins, everything you get from good
2:04food or that you don't get that you have
2:05to supplement. That's so important.
2:06There's this huge, like, era that
2:09bodybuilding went through where people
2:10would just like get protein shakes and
2:11get 1 g, 2 g per pound of body weight of
2:13protein. That's all they cared about.
2:15But, being able to get in actual proper
2:17food, like, I have a smoothie almost
2:18every morning, but I make sure I have at
2:19least two eggs and some fruit or
2:21something with that, so I'm not just
2:23getting from protein powder.
2:26>> [music]
2:29>> Do you think casual gym-goers need to
2:30focus on micronutrients or is that only
2:34like a high-level athlete thing?
2:35>> Everybody should. And I purposely picked
2:38everything in this video and stuff that
2:40doesn't just apply to recovering better,
2:42but actually applies to being healthier
2:44in general. Literally, your mom, your
2:46grandma, your children could be pretty
2:48much should be probably applying all of
2:50this to their life.
2:51>> [music]
2:55>> What do most people get wrong with
2:57micronutrients?
2:58>> Obsessing over protein only and eating
3:01garbage food. But, they don't What
3:03people don't realize that eating garbage
3:04food actually strips your body of
3:06micronutrients because it requires
3:08micronutrients for you to process that
3:09garbage. This is exactly what I got
3:11wrong when I was younger. It was just
3:13protein. I was in college. I was like,
3:14let me go to A&W, which is our fast food
3:16restaurant, hamburgers, whatever, eat
3:18crappy food, chicken breast and white
3:20rice sometimes, zero vegetables, no
3:22fruit. It's just, let me get some
3:23protein and then eat a bunch of
3:24processed food around that. And then
3:26when I got sick in 2018, I was like, I
3:27need to take my health a lot more
3:29seriously and focus on what I put in my
3:31body more. And when I did that, I
3:33realized my recovery in the gym also
3:35benefited from it. So, it was good for
3:36my health and my recovery in the gym.
3:38So, it was great to hit them both like
3:40that. You're not just being like, "Oh,
3:41like, I'm getting a lot of calories.
3:43Like, I'll go for a run and burn this
3:44off." Like, you're actually stripping
3:45your body's micronutrients out of
3:47yourself, increasing inflammation, and
3:49just setting your body on a cascade of
3:50negative effects when you eat processed
3:51food, rather than when you eat healthy
3:53stuff, it's actually benefiting your
3:55body, lowering inflammation, increasing
3:56recovery, all the things just get better
3:58and better.
3:59>> [snorts]
4:01[music]
4:12>> All right, so easy staples in terms of
4:13getting your micronutrients,
4:15specifically, smoothies. Probably the
4:17easiest cheat code of a lazy man that
4:18wants to get in all the nutrients. You
4:20can jam in so much stuff in here,
4:22whether you get like a powder, a greens
4:23product. I have a revive one at my gym
4:25actually that I sip on sometimes while
4:26I'm working. I feel like our parents'
4:28generation knew this, but we still don't
4:29do it. But eating a healthy, colorful
4:31diet, the more colors there are, usually
4:33the more nutrient. Also, like I said,
4:35avoiding processed foods. So, smoothies,
4:38colorful foods, avoid processed foods.
4:39That's already a great step forward
4:41towards getting more micronutrients and
4:43increasing your recovery. What's your
4:45go-to smoothie? My favorite,
4:48which is also the least nutrient dense,
4:51is just peanut butter and banana. Fire.
4:53But I usually add blueberries in there
4:54cuz blueberries are very high in
4:55antioxidants. But when I go places,
4:58I get whatever feels like the most
5:00dense. Like there's beets, chia seeds,
5:02flax seeds, cherries,
5:04blueberries,
5:07and a bunch of other stuff in this
5:08smoothie right here. But I'm like I
5:09don't have all that stuff at home, so
5:10when I go somewhere I'm going to get
5:11every nutrient I can find, throw it in
5:13the smoothie, and lock it in.
5:20All right, last little piece I'm going
5:21to say on nutrients because it's
5:22teetering into the obvious, amino acids,
5:25protein around working out, nutrient
5:27timing, etc. When you get your nutrients
5:29also does matter. Carbs around working
5:31out for performance, yes. But what I
5:32talk What I want to talk about right now
5:34is EAAs, amino acids, around your
5:37workout, specifically before. Cuz when
5:38you're training and you think about
5:40getting a pump, you're getting like 20
5:41times more blood volume going through a
5:43muscle while you're training. That's why
5:45your muscle swells and it looks so much
5:46bigger. If that blood is saturated with
5:49more amino acids, you're going to be
5:50shoving more nutrients to that muscle to
5:52provide more of an anabolic effect to
5:54allow for more growth, more recovery,
5:56etc. So, I've been having amino acids as
5:59like a pre-workout where I start sipping
6:00on it as I'm warming up a little bit
6:02before and during my workout so it's in
6:04my body. So, being able to get a little
6:06bit of amino acids in before cuz that
6:08can mess up your stomach, that can make
6:09you fatigued. But, it's in your blood
6:11and then getting the protein immediately
6:12after is very important for that
6:14nutrient [music] timing for your
6:16recovery to be optimized. So, don't
6:17sleep on that It actually helps.
6:19But, the little bits but the little bits
6:21add up. I'm going to start warming up,
6:22start working out today, jumping into
6:24it.
6:25Got to bring myself to life. Just trying
6:27to deadlift today.
6:42All right, recovery pillar number three.
6:44This is the biggest one that I need to
6:45focus on in this season of my life and
6:47that's stress. Stress as a whole, just
6:49stress management. Not avoiding all of
6:51it, but having it at the right time and
6:53managing it properly. And I experience
6:54this a lot more I think than most
6:55people, but when I'm high stress, I pee
6:58a lot more, which means you're flushing
7:00out more nutrients, more minerals, all
7:02the things that I was just talking about
7:03in the micronutrients side of things.
7:04Stress causes you to push all that out
7:06of your body cuz your body's like, "I'm
7:07in a fight or flight. I need to dump
7:08that into my bloodstream cuz if I need
7:10it, I need it readily available." But,
7:12if you do that 24/7, then you have
7:13nothing left in your body. If your
7:14cortisol is also always high, your
7:16hormones are So, your
7:17testosterone is going to be lower. It's
7:19going to be harder to sleep that night.
7:21Everything gets thrown off and your
7:22recovery ability is literally gone. But,
7:24the big thing in this is be on your
7:26phone less. You're doing a task, pick a
7:28singular task to do at a time. Stop
7:30trying to multitask and let yourself
7:32have moments of doing nothing throughout
7:34the day. And part of the challenge that
7:35I'm building it, one of the weeks is
7:37just staring at a wall for 20 minutes,
7:38just like this.
7:42I'm going to put you to sit here 20
7:43minutes right now?
7:44>> I was in your house last night.
7:46>> They're just training your brain to have
7:48a moment of peace. Okay to do nothing
7:49right now. The world's not going to end.
7:51I'm not dying. I'm not being chased by a
7:52lion right now. Just relax. So,
7:55being able to implement those into your
7:56life to allow your body to slow down is
7:58incredible. I've been meditating every
8:00morning in this really cool chair
8:01Courtney bought me that's like zero
8:03gravity. And it's usually the only 30
8:05minutes where my brain slows down and I
8:06get up and I check my phone and I'm
8:07right back [laughter] to it. So, I'm a
8:08horrible example of this right now.
8:10But I'm working towards it. I'm speaking
8:12to myself right now.
8:34>> What was it like coping with stress when
8:36you were at the peak of your
8:36bodybuilding career?
8:37>> I obsessed over not
8:40feeling things too much that I should
8:41have been by not diving to think that I
8:43thought would have caused me stressful
8:44by just kind of compartmentalizing and
8:46hyper-focusing on the things that I had
8:48to do to win. I remember reading this
8:49book by Ben Bergeron talking about his
8:51CrossFit athletes.
8:52And he had an athlete who finished
8:55one of the days of the games. And
8:56instead of going to rest, they were
8:58like, I'm going to go to a barbecue with
8:59my family and friends and just hang out.
9:00And then being able to spend time and to
9:02laugh and to have joy and to have
9:03connection with people actually
9:05regulated their nervous system and had
9:06allowed them to recover even better than
9:08just going home alone, putting on a
9:09sleep mask, cooling down, like doing all
9:11the things and just lying there trying
9:12to sleep extra. 2020, after I got sick
9:15the year before,
9:16I remember going to Courtney and her
9:18looking at me like, "What's wrong?" I
9:19started crying and I'm like, "I'm scared
9:20I'm going to get sick again. I'm scared
9:21bodybuilding is going to kill me and
9:23then put me back in the hospital. Like,
9:24why am I doing this?" And just sharing
9:26that and her being able to listen and
9:27give me a hug and be there with me and
9:29co-regulate. She didn't give me a
9:30solution. She didn't fix it. It didn't
9:31go away. But me being able to express
9:33that,
9:34I remember just calming my nervous
9:35system. I slept way better that night,
9:37and that was the first prep over the
9:39years of getting sick where I didn't get
9:40sick at all, and I was actually the
9:41healthiest I'd ever been. Many other
9:43factors come into play, but that was a
9:45huge part of it.
9:46So, I think there's just a lot to focus
9:48on, but sometimes you get too obsessed
9:50with like the science in the weeds, you
9:52forget the
9:54intangible things like love and
9:56connection and fun and joy and play,
9:58rather than obsessing over optimizing
10:00everything. And my brain wants to
10:01optimize, so
10:03trying to learn to take a step back.
10:05>> [music]
10:13[music and singing]
10:23[music]
10:29[music]
10:41[music]
10:42>> All right, post-workout is arguably
10:46a huge component in managing stress, one
10:48that I didn't always understand.
10:51But Justin pressed this heavily on me
10:53was, especially in my last year of prep
10:55when I started working with him, he was
10:56like, "You're in a high state of stress
10:57if you have a kid right now. You need to
10:59be able to take your body from the state
11:00of healthy stress while you're training,
11:02and then you want to be able to flip it
11:04back into parasympathetic where your
11:05body's able to relax and start
11:06recovering." Cuz the faster you do that,
11:07the faster you can start recovering. So,
11:09one of the best ways to do that is
11:10honestly just to like lie down in like a
11:12cool place. When I was in prep, I would
11:14just lie there with the huge fans I had,
11:15just lie there for like 10 minutes just
11:17like breathing, doing [music] absolutely
11:19nothing, not checking my phone, not
11:20checking work email, nothing, just
11:21letting my body come back down and
11:23relax, and then getting in some
11:24nutrients. Super helpful to get your
11:26body snapped into recovery mode.
11:27>> Does stress impede
11:30progress in the gym?
11:32>> But just this past weekend even at the
11:33standard event, we had a guy who was
11:35talking about how he trained 7 days a
11:37week and he's wondering why his legs
11:38won't grow. And our first answer was
11:40like, well, that's probably why cuz your
11:42body's not having sufficient time to
11:44actually rest properly. What I take from
11:45that is two different things.
11:47One thing is he's just probably training
11:49too much or not training hard enough in
11:51any session that he's allowed to train 7
11:52days a week. Also, he's probably using
11:55training to
11:57avoid the stressful thoughts he has on
11:59his mind. He's using it as a way to
12:01regulate his nervous system. So, he's
12:03probably stressed out all the time. He's
12:04using the gym to not feel stressed out
12:06and then he's therefore affecting his
12:08gains in two different ways. I used to
12:09train like 2 3 hours [music] a day, 6
12:11sometimes 7 days a week and I started
12:13doing that continuously and when I got
12:15to like even 24 years old, I just
12:17couldn't progress anymore [music]
12:19and I started to cut it back, cut it
12:20back and I was down to four to five
12:21times a week and my workouts came down
12:23to like an hour and a half, a little bit
12:25less volume and I actually started to
12:26get stronger, to see more progress, get
12:28bigger. The gym is a good stress that
12:30you're implementing on purpose, but if
12:32you're doing too much of it, you're
12:33actually setting yourself backwards
12:35because your body can't recover
12:36properly.
12:41>> [music]
12:42>> Last but certainly not least, arguably
12:44the most important, stress and sleep.
12:50Speaking of sleep, that's the reason why
12:52I don't get a lot of sleep right now if
12:53you can hear the baby crying right now.
12:54Sleep is like a cumulative debt. They've
12:57proven this now so if you lose 1 hour of
12:59sleep,
13:00it arguably you need more than an hour
13:02the next day to gain that back. When
13:04your body is deeply rested and sleeping,
13:07the only time it it allows it to fully
13:09heal and regenerate. So when it's
13:11constantly breaking down, disease
13:13happens and a huge reason why I believe
13:16people are sick is just because they're
13:17always stressed and people sleep
13:19absolutely horribly. What happens to
13:20your brain when you don't get enough
13:21sleep? I literally just looked this up.
13:24I was wondering myself. Bradley's on
13:26like 3 months of not really sleeping
13:27through the night and the first like
13:28couple weeks I was a zombie. I couldn't
13:31function and all of a sudden I was like
13:33cruising. I was like I feel great. I
13:35feel good. I'm moving. I didn't feel
13:37tired. My body felt fine, but I couldn't
13:39recall words and I had my memory was
13:41horrible. Your output drops down to like
13:4360% from one night of lost sleep. So
13:46your brain actually stops functioning at
13:48the same capacity, but it tells your
13:49body not to be tired so you can still
13:51function, but you need to be smarter and
13:53actually get yourself the rest you need
13:54so you don't get sick. You can recover
13:55better. You can push yourself harder.
13:57All right, that's a wrap on my orienting
13:59about recovery. If you guys want more of
14:00these self videos, comment below, but
14:02I'll see you guys in the next video.