Brian (0s):
Coming up on the GET, LEAN, Eat, Clean Podcast.
Brad (3s):
Always sit back and think, okay, there's possible. And then there's optimal. So it is possible for me to ride my bicycle 100 miles on zero calories because I did that back in the day to, to prove a point And, you know, on a dare sort of thing. And I did just fine because I was, you know, manufacturing a ton of stress hormones and dumping that glucose into my bloodstream, And, you know, firing up ketone production and doing all these great things. So, you know, today's modern CrossFit keto warrior can, you know, come into the workout on a 24 hour fast, kick some butt, and put up some awesome numbers fast for four more hours, sit down to a meal that only has 24 grams of carbohydrates report feeling great, and, and carry on on this mode.
Brad (52s):
But it might not be optimal. And over time, we have to reflect on how stressful modern life is in so many different ways, such that we have to mind our stress scoreboard a little better than just plunge deep into every possible biohacking that we've heard about.
Brian (1m 14s):
Hello and welcome to the Lean Eat Clean podcast. I'm m Brian Gryn and I here to give you actionable tips to get your body back to what it once was, five, 10, even 15 years ago. Each week I'll give you an in depth interview with a health expert from around the world to cut through the fluff and get you long term sustainable results. This week I bring back one of my favorite long time guests, bestselling author, podcast host of the B Rad Podcast, and Elite Masters Athlete Brad Kearns We. discussed the importance of building a morning routine along with Setting goals in your fifties, Advantages of Micro Workouts High Intensity Sprints as You Age Balancing Stressors in Your Life.
Brian (1m 56s):
and much, much more. Really enjoyed my interview with Brad. I know you will too. Thanks so much for listening and enjoy the show, All, right Welcome to the Get Lean Eat Clean podcast. My name is Brian Gryn, and, and I have Brad Kearns on Welcome to the show,
Brad (2m 13s):
Brian. It's good to join you again, and congratulations on all the great work. I remember when you were talking to me about launching your podcast a couple, few years ago, whenever that
Brian (2m 25s):
Was. Yeah.
Brad (2m 26s):
And here we are, man. We're just regulars in the booth.
Brian (2m 30s):
Well, you know, you, you helped me launch my podcast, so I owe it all to you and And. now I'm an avid listener of yours. The, your podcast, the b Rad Podcast, and tons of great content on there. So I always tell people that's that's one that I'm, I always listen to how are things been going with the podcast.
Brad (2m 54s):
Well, on that note, it, you know, it's, it's fun to, to reconnect with you. And I really appreciate having like, recurring conversations with some of my favorite guests and, and being on a, a show. Again, some of my favorite appearances, and I think it allows us to kind of flow really nicely. We're past the, the pleasantries and the talking points where I have to, you know, remind you of my book on sale now at Amazon or whatever. And so I think we're gonna, we're getting into some, some deep topics where we really speak authentically, and it, it's a good experience for the listener. So I have no problem, you know, going at it again and again and, and dig a little deeper.
Brad (3m 37s):
And that's what's so great about, about podcasting.
Brian (3m 41s):
Yeah, I, I, I agree. I think that like, you know, we learned so much from being a podcast host and our opinions can change through the years, and I think it's important to sort of like, take a step back and like just talk about that. 'cause we have some similar, fairly similar guests on per se. And so when you hear different things from different people and you know, your, your opinion can change and, but anyways, yeah, no, I'm, I'm excited to have you on, I know you did a, a 10 part series on optimizing testosterone, and I was like, well, this would be fun to have Brad on, and we can touch on that And, you know, anything else ancestral or, you know, I know you just did one on your ancestral obsession versus optimal modern peak performance, which I, I think really relevant thing because I think this whole ancestral play has been getting a lot of, you know, a lot of people talk about ancestral leading, but is that optimal, right?
Brian (4m 40s):
Like, like what, what, yeah,
Brad (4m 42s):
Man,
Brian (4m 43s):
It's, yeah. What is optimal,
Brad (4m 44s):
Right? It's a great topic because the, the human species is so resilient and we can handle so much. And hey, my grandfather lived to 94 and he smoked like a chimney and never exercised a day in his life and did this and did that. And so it, it is fascinating to see people in your own family, in your own reference points where they don't do anything toward health and biohacking and performance optimization, and they, they skate along until until their nineties. And you know, then you have people that are less fortunate, even though they, they've tried everything and done everything right, and they're struggling with, you know, adverse blood values or tragic health consequences.
Brad (5m 27s):
And so the, the, the takeaway from this rethinking of the ancestral obsession, as I call it, is that, yeah, our ancestors survived all kinds of crazy shit. And part of that was So. We didn't have to, like, we're trying to get better and make life easier and more enjoyable and more fulfilling and meaningful So. we don't have to get up and go punch steel in a factory every single day like our ancestors might have. And so I'm trying to recalibrate a bit as we see this obsession taken too far to always sit back and think, okay, there's possible, and then there's optimal.
Brad (6m 8s):
So it is possible for me to ride my bicycle 100 miles on zero calories because I did that back in the day to, to prove a point And, you know, on a dare sort of thing. And I did just fine because I was, you know, manufacturing a ton of stress hormones and dumping that glucose into my bloodstream, And, you know, firing up ketone production and doing all these great things. So, you know, today's modern CrossFit keto warrior can, you know, go, come into the workout on a 24 hour fast, kick some butt and put up some awesome numbers, fast for four more hours, sit down to a meal that only has 24 grams of carbohydrates report feeling great and, and, and carry on on this mode, but it might not be optimal.
Brad (6m 55s):
And over time, we have to reflect on how stressful modern life is in so many different ways, such that we have to mind our stress scoreboard a little better than just plunge deep into every possible biohacking that we've heard about. So on my stress scoreboard, if you follow me and, and, and, and listen to my stuff, Hey, I'm a fan of cold water therapy and therapeutic cold exposure, and I also wrote a book about keto, and I also like doing Masters track and field where I'm sprinting and doing high jumping and doing all these things that are fun and challenging and ostensibly good for my health and longevity, but not if they stack up too much on the stress side, and I don't allow for proper recovery, replenishment, rest restoration, things like that.
Brad (7m 45s):
So on the simple example of me striving for athletic peak performance goals and then trying to eat the most optimal diet, that's when I've done a lot of rethinking. And I think we did a, a, a whole show talking about how, you know, Jay Feldman had a wonderful impact on me. He was on your show too. And so the listeners are familiar with this, what Jay calls the bioenergetic model for health. But the, the recalibration that I, I made accordingly was that I want all my stress resources directed toward performance and recovery and performance and recovery. So that's my mantra now, perform, recover, perform, recover.
Brad (8m 27s):
And so most of my, most of my stress resources, I also have stressful, everyday hectic, modern life to, to get through. But I want them to be on athletic peak performance. And I do not want to add additional Stressors, for example, with fasting for long periods or restricting carbohydrates in the name of a health response.
Brian (8m 50s):
Yeah. And you know, like you mentioned, there's like this stress bucket, right? They also, they all go in there and I think it depends on the individual, like how stressful their lifestyle is. And I think, like you said, stacking Stressors could be an issue. What, yeah,
Brad (9m 8s):
Let's, let's, you know, raise your hand if you have a life that's not very stressful or that you require more stress in your life. Not many people, most of us are dealing with chronic stress, and we have way too much chronic stress because not sleeping enough is chronic stress. Introducing artificial light after dark is chronic stress, all these things. And then we go and try to throw in some acute Stressors in the name of fitness or, or, you know, fasting or jumping in the cold plunge for a couple minutes. and we need more appropriate hormetic Stressors or acute Stressors, because that's what makes the body strong and resilient.
Brad (9m 49s):
But if you layer those onto all your chronic stress, that's where we have a huge problem to look at.
Brian (9m 56s):
Now, Brad, how old are you?
Brad (9m 58s):
58. Feeling great. Many ways better than now. You
Brian (10m 2s):
Look great. How old were you in that picture? Right behind you, if you're watching on YouTube,
Brad (10m 5s):
The, the drawing. They Photoshop my drawing. Wait, they photoshopped my, my photograph and my drawing. Come on.
Brian (10m 15s):
Now I mean, look you going over that bar. I mean, how old were you then when that pic when that drawing was made, I guess?
Brad (10m 21s):
Well, my best high jump of my life was when I was 51, I jumped five five. And that's way better than I did in high school. Wow. Because in high school, I was this skinny little distance runner guy running circles around the track. I didn't have any strength or power, and my best high jump in high school was only five feet. So I'm, I'm proud to rewind the clock in that manner, to think that, you know, it's, it's never too late to, you know, strive for peak performance goals and be the best that you can be at any age. But I will say, you know, I used to banter about, with the funny aphorisms, like, hey, age is just a number, you know, people say it on their birthday. And then I heard someone I think on a podcast really challenge that remark and say, you know what?
Brad (11m 4s):
Age is not just a fricking number. And if you think it's just a number, you better wake your ass up and start getting in, getting your life into gear so you can do something to, you know, ward against the, the demise that we associate with chronological aging. In other words, I have a great amount of respect for my advanced age to the extent that I can't recover or perform as well as I could when I was younger. So I have to make allowances and be realistic and not just be blabbing lines. Like age is just a number. You get the difference. Like, you know, I gotta watch it. Now I don't have a margin for error where I can go out to the basketball court without warming up and jump into the pickup game and guard some guy and try to dunk on him.
Brad (11m 48s):
So I appreciate that things are different now, and I'm doing the best I can within the circumstances of my chronological age.
Brian (11m 58s):
Well said. Well, I mean, having your best high jump when you're 51 is pretty impressive. What are your goals now? You're 58, do you have any other goals to sort of strive towards, whether it's high jump or, I know speed golf, when did you set the, you you got the fastest hole played, right? It's a par five. Yeah. Is that still a Guinness Book World record?
Brad (12m 23s):
It will always, will be. But some mofo in Europe broke my record and I couldn't believe it because my performance, which you can watch on YouTube, it's, it's the Guinness World Record for the fastest single hole of golf ever played. And the hole has to be 500 yards. It can't be like, Hey, I got a par three hole in one. It took four seconds for the ball to fly in the cup, right? And so you have the, the minimum length required, and then you're going flat out and sprinting as fast as you can and trying to get the ball in the hole on this par five. And I, I ended up getting a birdie on this great day where I used only one club, so I wasn't messing around with changing clubs. I hit four perfect shots with a three wood, and there I am in the Guinness Record book. And then this, this European professional tour player broke it.
Brad (13m 5s):
So he is a very fine golfer. What's his
Brian (13m 7s):
Name?
Brad (13m 8s):
Thomas Dery from Belgium. Oh,
Brian (13m 11s):
Thomas Deri. Yeah,
Brad (13m 12s):
Yeah, yeah. He was on the leaderboard. I just saw him maybe in the British Open or
Brian (13m 16s):
Something. Yeah, at the open. Yeah.
Brad (13m 18s):
Yeah. But he broke it. That's pretty, yeah. Yeah. And I studied the video and I'm like, wait, how does this guy break it by, you know, a good number of seconds. And the, I realized the hole was downhill, and so he was running really fast. He hit his drive, you know, 340 yards, as did some of these other guys that were trying for the record. And I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait. We can't do this on a downhill hole. So I protested to the Guinness Record book, really? And they said, well, it's too late because we already approved his record. But from now on, we're gonna limit the elevation drop on the hole to no more than 65 feet, which is a lot. But that was what that hole dropped. I studied it on Google Earth as part of my protest.
Brad (13m 59s):
Oh my God. And they said, so the record stands. And I said, okay, well I hereby, you know, apply to try and break that record on this hole in southern Spain. And they said, okay, you're approved. So I have to go to Real Golf Club de Gu in Spain and try to get my record back on the exact same hole that it was broken on.
Brian (14m 17s):
Well, I guess if someone was gonna break it, Thomas Diet Tree, who's a very good player to break it, you know, that's a lot of, you know, that's, that's pretty impressive that you're, your, your, your, your, your Guinness Book record lasted that long.
Brad (14m 33s):
Well, speaking of goals, you know, I think it's super important that we have something that charges us up and gets us outta bed every day. And something to point for that means a lot to the individual and represents something that, you know, keeps you accountable day after day. I, I don't think it's enough, especially for me to just write on a sticky note, 2023, get to the gym more this year and be consistent with my running mileage or, or things like that. And I think what happens is a lot of people, they just tone down their competitive Intensity over time and then tell stories about, yeah, back in the day, I was the number three guy on my college golf team.
Brad (15m 15s):
You should have seen some of these tournaments. They were really tough. And, you know, then you're going out and playing and, and giving each other putts and not, you know, putting yourself in a competitive situation again. And so for me, I think it's a key component of living a rich and rewarding life, is to have competitive challenges that really light you up, that perhaps scare you that are daunting, that you wonder if you can do it or not, and still put yourself out there on the line. Not that the, you know, the TV cameras are gonna be filming you And, you know, from my background, I was a professional triathlete, so this was my career and it was very intense and dramatic and, you know, the, the, the races were on television and there was prize money and all these things.
Brad (15m 57s):
And so now I'm just an old guy, you know, in an empty high school stadium trying to jump over the high jump bar. But when I jump over that bar and I land in the pit, I scream for joy. Like the stadium is full of 75,000 people at the Olympic Games. And the accomplishment to me in this empty high school stadium, that means nothing to anybody except for my YouTube channel, perhaps, is just as important as when I was competing as a rank professional on the, on the triathlon circuit and being in this big stage and competing with, with all my heart. So we have the circumstances that we're facing in life that you might not be, you know, magazine cover material anymore, but make it mean something to you and strive to be better on whatever that is.
Brian (16m 44s):
Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, like for me, golf has always been a big part of my life and just trying to excel and get better at that, which can drive you crazy. But, you know, this could also just be in business, you know, And, you know, obviously having it be a part of, of your life as far as health is concerned is, is important as well. I think like people that maybe pick different races or like, you know, they have the, what are those races called that go on all over the country? you know, I'm trying Yeah.
Brad (17m 18s):
Obstacle course
Brian (17m 18s):
Or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. you know, putting those on the calendar, But, it could be, it could be something really simple. It doesn't have to be something that hardcore. Do you have anything planned in the next few years or do you, like, you know, do you have any goals as far as health is concerned for yourself?
Brad (17m 36s):
Oh, sure. I have, I have tons of 'em 'cause I live and breathe this stuff, but I think this is where, you know, the, the average listener and you have so many responsibilities and, and core duties in daily life, but if you can just squeeze something in there that's for you, it's personal. It's a big challenge. The endurance scene is, is so popular these days where, you know, there's a lot of average people that are trying to get through that marathon and they go a lot slower than the winners, but they have a race number on, and they're in the same race as the Olympic gold medalist when they line up in Boston or Chicago or New York. And that's really cool because the, you know, you have a competitive experience no matter how fast you're going, it can still be a personal challenge to you to just finish.
Brad (18m 21s):
That said, I feel like in, in fitness in general, there's a lot of people going for that endurance goal and putting that type of exercise in, but we're missing the, the, the top end where I don't see a lot of people pushing and challenging themselves to be as strong as and powerful as possible or as fast and explosive as possible. And these attributes are the ones that we really lose dramatically as we age. And they have tremendous fitness benefit if you can put in some high Intensity exercise at times. And what's cool about that is it doesn't take that long. So you don't have to go for two hours and slog around, you know, the nine mile trail at the park and think that that's the essence of fitness.
Brad (19m 6s):
That's a small sliver of fitness. Take it for me as a longtime endurance Athlete, that was my bread and butter, and that's all I did for many years. And then as, as I aged, I had this awakening that, you know what, we should be competent at sprinting up four fights of stairs or lifting up a heavy weight off the ground and doing things that preserve muscle strength, preserve functional muscle strength throughout life. That's what Dr. Peter Atia and others represent as the single, the single best intervention for longevity disease prevention, And, you know, avoiding the accelerated demise that we're seeing all around us from aging is to be strong and powerful throughout life.
Brad (19m 47s):
So I encourage, you know, all people who are interested in health and fitness to try to step it up once in a while and, and do things that are, you know, that, that get you outta breath, that get your muscles burning and push you to maximum effort. That's why I love sprinting and high jumping so much that these are very short maximum effort events. Quite disparate from my time as a triathlete where we're out there for hours and hours every day, but they give me a tremendous sense of satisfaction. I mean, the high jump, I'm in the air for one second. So I used to be a two hour racer on the professional Olympic distance circuit And. now my favorite event is one second. So my, my biggest goal is to increase my, my high jump performance.
Brad (20m 28s):
So I'm training for an event that literally lasts one second.
Brian (20m 32s):
Yeah. The complete opposite. Right. I do agree. I think this, the, the whole Micro workout, I've, and I've talked about this before, I thinks like something that people should embrace, especially as we get older, it's something that I've embraced. I mean, what is your typical routine? Like, I mean, you're 58, you're in great shape, you know this, you live and breathe this stuff. What, what is, I know your routine has probably changed through the years, but what, what, what is, you know, your daily and weekly routine like?
Brad (21m 3s):
Yeah, thanks Brian. I, I will say one thing at this age, which is really important, that this this glorified concept of crushing a workout and you go on social media and see that, you know, search that term or something and you see people, you know, sharing their impressive performance of these brutal Workouts. We like the term brutal, we like the term crushing. We have the personal trainer industry where they're going and, and getting, either getting paid to make sure that that client burns enough calories sufficiently to report being exhausted and they give that weak thumbs up at the end, but they got their money's worth at least.
Brad (21m 43s):
And so as we get into the older age groups, you realize that you can't go and push your body too far in a single workout because you pay the price with aches and pains that could turn into injuries, delayed recovery time, and particularly fatigue during the busy productive day that you're trying to have after your workout. So I've really done away with the formal session that is really, really difficult performed in the name of getting me fitter for competition or getting me fitter in general. So Now I, try really hard to tone down the, the degree of difficulty of any individual workout in favor of just a consistent application of brief explosive efforts, like you said, Micro Workouts.
Brad (22m 35s):
And then when I do a formal workout and I don't do this very well, but I'm, I'm resolving to leave a little in the tank when I go home from the running track. But what happens is I get so excited out there and I'm trying to work on my high jump approach. And so I might take 20 full approaches in a single workout where I know the world class athletes take about a dozen as the maximum. That's what the great coaches say is like, you only have 12 good jumps in you and then you're done, then you get tired. But me, some old guy thinking I can get it right on one more time, I end up, you know, injuring my, my, my, my foot or my hamstringing and then I realize, dang, I shouldn't have pushed myself so hard out there. But I enjoy it so much that I tend to adrift a little past that safety spot.
Brad (23m 20s):
And so for everyone listening, when you're out there in the, the structured fitness community where you go to the gym and you're doing a one hour class and they're pushing you pretty hard for that entire hour, I contend that overall if we tone down the duration of some of these Workouts and maybe up the Intensity, if you're not really pushing yourself to the burn level or to the extreme out of breath level where you have to take a minute or two recovery, that might be a better approach to fitness than this chronic cardio approach as Mark Sisson called it 15, 20 years ago. And we're still trying to figure out why we're not getting results and why we're getting a lot of attrition in the fitness industry.
Brad (24m 1s):
And I think it's because most Workouts are a little bit too difficult and last a little bit too long. So we're gonna do a lot better, we're gonna fare better if we just go and punch the accelerator a few times and get out of the gym and go home. I have a Carroll bike, you've heard of that Carroll, C a r O l, where it's a cardiovascular optimized logic where the, the machine learns how, how much power you have and then, you know, provides this Resistance during your workout to, to kind of, you know, give you the appropriate session. But their Workouts are like 10 minutes long. So my favorite one is, it's a 12 second sprint, eight second recovery, 12 second sprint, eight second recovery, and you do 30 of 'em and it's so difficult.
Brad (24m 47s):
And then you're done, you do warm up two minutes, you do the protocol and you cool down two minutes and you have a very effective workout that doesn't leave you feeling trashed and exhausted and fatigued from doing, let's say a very popular one hour spin class or Peloton class with your favorite instructor who's cheering for you in the last 12 minutes. And do, do three more Sprints, come on, you can do it. I know you got it in you and you feel good at the time for accomplishing a miniature achievement of getting through the workout. But as we sprinkle these in over time, they can easily become too stressful to the point where you're, you know, you're not feeling like you're responding to your extreme devotion to fitness.
Brian (25m 30s):
So is the Carroll bike, is that just a bike, right? Yeah,
Brad (25m 35s):
It's a, it's a, it's an indoor, you know, it's a stationary bike. Okay. And they see, just have these, you know, these, these Workouts programmed in there that are shortened duration, but they ask you to sprint for maximum Intensity. The, the, the bread and butter workout when the bike first came out was it was eight minutes long and you sprinted all out for 20 seconds, twice, you know, with a few minutes recovery in between a few minutes warmup and the research, I think it's called the Wingate protocol, where they've, you know, done this in laboratory studies where just sprinting for 20 seconds, twice in a workout is as effective or gives you more fitness benefits than peddling slowly for an hour. And you see so many people in the, in the gym or out on the road slogging for, you know, 45 to 60 minutes at a, at a hopefully a comfortable heart rate.
Brad (26m 22s):
Sometimes the heart rate's too high, which is a disaster. But people out there, you know, nailing their cardiovascular requirement for fitness must awaken to the idea that this is just a small sliver of your overall fitness competency. Now here's the other thing about brief explosive, high Intensity Workouts and, you know, interval sessions, high Intensity interval training. Those sessions also develop your cardiovascular fitness very well, very effectively. And so, just like the jogger is going for that cardio a plus someone who's doing a fair amount of sprint sessions is also getting an extremely, extremely effective cardiovascular training effect.
Brad (27m 5s):
It doesn't ha you don't have to go out there for an hour because when you teach your body to work at maximum Intensity, it becomes more efficient at all lower levels of exercise Intensity. So even though I just do sprint Workouts now and I don't do any long distance training, I can still feel pretty good. For example, we did this epic nine hour cactus to clouds hike. It was uphill the entire time the, hmm, the steepest hiking trail in the United States. It's in Palm Springs, California. So I had no conditioning for endurance. I wasn't out there practicing four hour hikes every weekend. But I felt fine because I'm in good sprint condition.
Brian (27m 41s):
Yeah, a great way to be efficient, right? Especially if you're lacking in time because
Brad (27m 46s):
Time efficient. Fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. And you can screw this up. And high Intensity interval training as it's presented now to the masses, I think is a workout that's, again, slightly too stressful, lasts too long, too many repeats, not enough rest in between the repeats. And that's where we get into this fatigue and depletion state afterwards. So if you're walking away from your Workouts now and you're craving a Jamba juice scone and, and medium drink, which by the way contains more calories than the badass spin class that you just finished. And that's, that's literally true. 'cause we, we, we looked at the research for calorie burning in a spin class and then how many calories the scone and the medium smoothie was.
Brad (28m 29s):
And it was like 6 6 95 to 6 56 or something like that, right? So if you're, if you're craving sugar and feeling a little, a little dazed and depleted in the one hour, four hours, eight hours, 12 hours aftermath of your workout, you probably pushed yourself too hard. And so when I'm talking about punching it and pushing yourself, what I'm talking about is doing very brief explosive efforts. The sweet spot would be 10 to 20 seconds of effort and then a lengthy rest period after you push yourself hard to allow your body to replenish and recover and then be able to deliver another very high quality near maximum Intensity effort.
Brad (29m 11s):
So I talk about my template sprint workout all the time. It's really simple. It's between four and eight reps of Sprints that last between 10 and 20 seconds. And the recovery is six to one recovery to work interval. So if you're sprinting 10 seconds on the athletic field, you recover for a minute. That's a long recovery time for when you only sprinted 10 seconds and then you do four to eight of those and then you're done. Of course you're co warming up and doing drills and getting ready to push yourself hard. And if you're on a bicycle, same thing, you can go up to 20 seconds 'cause it's no impact. So you're gonna warm up, you're gonna sprint for 20 seconds, you're gonna recover for two minutes in between those 22nd Sprints, then you throw down another, another another.
Brad (29m 56s):
And if you get to four or six or eight, that is an outstanding workout. Even though you might be listening going, what? That's it sprinting five times for 20 seconds. That's a, that's a minute 40 and that's it. Yes. That is where you can really train the body appropriately to be more powerful, more explosive, better hormone health, less risk of chronic overproduction of stress hormones that come from those hour, hour 15 Workouts that are too difficult that'll mess you up for the rest of your day. Suppress immune function and lead to breakdown, burnout, illness and injury.
Brian (30m 33s):
Let me tell you, that's, I think, like for me, I, I have, oh gosh, I'm like, my brain's not, it's, I have the bike. What's the big bike with the, the like the, oh, the
Brad (30m 43s):
Val, the the what's the assault bike?
Brian (30m 46s):
Yeah, the assault bike. Yeah. Yeah. you know, I have that bike and yeah, doing like Sprints of 10 seconds to 10 to 20 seconds in that range is plenty. And then giving yourself enough time to recover. Who was it on our, we had him on on our podcast, the Hurt Protocol.
Brad (31m 2s):
Yeah, Dr. Craig Marker.
Brian (31m 3s):
Yeah, Dr. Craig Marker. Yeah. Is that where you sort of got that basis from as far as the repeat training and giving yourself
Brad (31m 11s):
Enough? Yeah, it's an excellent, there's an article called Hit versus Hurt, right? Maybe you can link it in your show notes or people can Google it. So hurt is H i r t and Hi is the familiar H I I T, high Intensity interval training. I talked about how many of those Workouts are orchestrated such that they're too stressful for most participants. And then hurt would be high Intensity repeat training where as I discussed, you put in that excellent 10 or 22nd sprint and then you rest long enough where you can put in another excellent performance where your technique and your power output is similar to the first one. So, we wanna see the first sprint be, you know, equivalent, equivalent Intensity and output and perceived exertion to the last one.
Brad (31m 57s):
It's called consistent quality of effort. That's what I call it. And when I'm out there on the track running, maybe that fourth or fifth one, I feel a little tiny twinge in my lower back or the hamstringing burns a little more than it did on the first, second, third, and fourth one. And that's my cue to know that this workout is time to wrap up. You don't want to be like rocky in the movies where you're on your hands and knees puking at the last one because it was so hard and you were so tough 'cause you finished all the required reps. And that's what we have to get away from in fitness. We wanna walk away from Workouts feeling a little spring in our step pleasantly fatigued from the effort.
Brad (32m 38s):
But we're not toasted and we're not, you know, with our tongue hanging out looking for the closest Jamba Jews.
Brian (32m 44s):
The rogue echo.
Brad (32m 45s):
Sorry, I just lost another sponsor for you man. But yeah, don't the
Brian (32m 49s):
Rogue, the rogue Echo bike. I'm sorry, that's what I was saying. Yeah, yeah,
Brad (32m 52s):
Yeah. Those things are incredibly, and I think a lot of people don't even realize, like, what is it like to push your body to maximum for a ten second effort because they've never drifted that way because the Workouts are too long and you have to do 30 Sprints in your average Peloton class or whatever it is. Yeah. And so, you know, doing, doing, you know, getting doctor's clearance of course and all that important stuff. But going out there and seeing what it's like to ask the maximum from your body for a very short duration period, that's where you get these amazing hormone boosts and you know, a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. And it's different than just slogging around the park for four laps like your typical workout.
Brian (33m 32s):
Now are you doing these, going back to your routine? I don't, are you doing these Workouts two times a week or once a week? How does it, how do you sort of put them in your week and then where do you bring in Resistance training and things like that?
Brad (33m 47s):
Yeah, so a good high quality sprint session for someone in my age group, you know, once a week is plenty. Now what I try to do is I get a lot of preparation time. So I do drills, which can be pretty strenuous, but they're low impact. And you can see me on YouTube Brad Kearns running technique drills where I'm doing high knees and skips and, and different forms of skips and all these different ways to kind of optimize your sprinting technique and simulate certain portions of the sprinting stride to, to practice and reinforce them with the, your, you know, correct firing of the, of the brain when you're, when you're going full speed.
Brad (34m 27s):
And so these, I perform several times a week in the course of, you know, it might just be a jog around the neighborhood of a mile and a half, but I'm doing a lot of drills where the workout is quite strenuous. But again, it's low impact because I'm not going through the full sprinting stride. I'm just doing like, you know, the skipping drills and things that maybe viewers are familiar with. And so there's a lot of high Intensity and short duration Workouts, but not a lot of high impact where, for example, a high jump practice, I would never do that more than once a week because there's too much load and I have to recover quite a bit after, because when I'm out there, this is not an endurance event.
Brad (35m 9s):
This is a one second event and I want to be completely explosive, rested, optimally primed, optimally excited. And uninhibited is the quote from Dr. Tudor Bampa about how you wanna be when you're performing a high Intensity explosive effort as you want that nervous system to be pumped up and psyched up and all that sort of sort of fun stuff. But the, the baseline where I launch my fitness endeavors from is my morning exercise routine. And I will talk about this for a moment 'cause it's really been life-changing for me. And I, I can't believe I'm saying that because I've been a lifelong Athlete And, you know, the Workouts have always been part of my day. I haven't had to psych myself up or make time and my busy schedule for workout, it's just been part of my life for so long.
Brad (35m 55s):
But what I decided to do, this is now seven years ago, was I said, you know, I need to do something every day that prepares my body better for these high Intensity sprint Workouts that I do once a week. Because I'd go and do my sprint workout, I'd feel great, and then I'd be hobbling around for three days after with tight calves And, you know, my back would be stiff. And it's because I never approximated the challenge of my best workout on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, I'd be in the gym, I'd lift weights, I'd do jogging, I'd do riding my bicycle, but I didn't have that, that baseline to launch sprint workout successfully. So I started to work on immediately first thing in the morning, a series of flexibility, mobility, core strengthening, leg strengthening drills.
Brad (36m 39s):
And it caught on with the Brad Kern scene to the extent that I said, you know what? I have to do this every day. This is a fantastic way to start my day because it gives me that natural blood flow And, you know, natural way of energizing myself and, and waking up without having to struggle around or go reach for coffee or, you know, take an hour to finally feel like my brain was clearing. So what I started doing was I'd get outta bed and I'd immediately hit the deck and launch into my routine. And it became such a habit that I went for, you know, seven years without missing a single day. I do my morning exercise routine every day. That's great. And over time, this how long, long this commitment?
Brad (37m 22s):
Well, it started at 12 minutes And, you know, I said, that's not too much to ask. I can do 12 minutes every single day. But then as I enjoyed it so much and I realized how valuable it was, I started to add a particular exercise into the template. So the key facets of it are, one, I make a sincere commitment to do it every day. Two, I do the exact same exercise sequence every single day so I don't have to think or get creative or see if I'm motivated. I don't feel like doing the core today. I am gonna skip that. No, I keep the template the same and it's sort of like a robotic or a meditative experience where I just hit the deck, I do my 40 hamstringing kick outs to the right, 40 to the left, and I do 20 scissors, then I do 20 mountain climbers forward, 20 mountain climbers backward.
Brad (38m 6s):
You get the idea. I'm going through the sequence every single day, whether I'm motivated or not, whether I'm, you know, stiff or sore. I still do it because it's at that degree of difficulty, which is doable for me. It's not super strenuous. It's right there in the sweet spot where it's a pretty impressive workout. Now I've taken my friends through it and they go halfway and they're like, I'm cooked, man, I can't do this. So it's actually pretty tough, but it's not tough for me because I do it every single freaking day. So whatever I do the rest of the day, I launch from this nice platform where I know what I'm doing every single morning. And it's kind of a, you know, it's in service to my own, you know, my own health and proactive mindset as well.
Brad (38m 50s):
Because I have the discipline and the focus to get down and do something that means a lot to me rather than get distracted and reach for my phone. Like 84% of Americans do according to a recent Adweek survey. And as soon as you reach for your phone, you bring yourself into the sympathetic state reactive fight or flight mode where you're now engaged with technology and it's very difficult to extricate yourself and put the phone down and start writing in your gratitude journal or going out and taking the dog for a walk or doing any of these things that you're, you know, going for a cold plunge. All these well-meaning peak performance endeavors that you wish you could do every morning. So it's really become a great habit for me.
Brad (39m 33s):
And over time the commitment escalated to now my morning routine takes 40 minutes, which I know is quite a bit to ask of someone to do every single day. We all have busy mornings. I remember the times when my, you know, kids were trying to get off to the school bell and it was, it was a rough go to just, you know, get him out the door. And so I have the luxury now of dedicating that first 40 minutes of my day to my morning routine. But if you're listening and you don't have 40 minutes and you can say, okay, I'm gonna take seven minutes as the first act upon awakening to get up, go outdoors into direct light. It doesn't have to be sunny, but direct light exposure to your eyes is what sets your circadian rhythm and gives you that natural awakening and alertness and energizing in the morning.
Brad (40m 20s):
So you need to get out to direct light and start moving your body physically. That will be a wonderful way to wake up and have so many downstream benefits, for example, because I can do that. I'm supposedly more resilient against other forms of distraction that can take me away from my, my core responsibilities. I'm still working on that. My email inbox still gets in the way when I'm trying to write a book or whatever, but at least I start my day with a great fitness contribution that will then help me launch into whatever formal workout I decide to do. So usually the workout will happen right on the heels of my morning exercise routine so that I, I am then ready to head over to the track and I'm all warmed up and feeling good.
Brad (41m 4s):
And so that's a nice way to, you know, optimize the Workouts that I do sprinkle into the schedule, the proper Workouts. And you asked about how, how those look. So on top of my morning routine, there are quite a few days where that's all I do because again, it's a 40 minute workout and it's tough. That stuff at the end is like the grand finales are, you know, they get me working, but you know, many days I will go and do some easy aerobic activity. you know, people are all high on the zone two cardio now as this big objective. And I'm here raising my hand saying, Hey, hey, what about zone one? So I want people to focus on zone one and zone two cardio meaning zone one is super easy like walking or just puts around on your bike.
Brad (41m 50s):
But that has a tremendous fitness stimulation as well. And I think it's getting, it's getting shafted with this obsession with zone two. and we don't have to go up to zone two all the time. 'cause a lot of people who think they're doing zone two are doing zone two and a half or zone 2.75. And back in that category of chronic cardio where the Workouts are slightly too difficult and strenuous rather than the true intent of a zone one or a zone two workout is to get a light Fat burning cardiovascular workout where you're burning predominantly Fat and the workout itself is not strenuous. You're able to converse, you're able to breathe through your nose only if you were to try that. And that part, I think we're still not realizing how important it is to get comfortably paced cardio that doesn't, you know, that doesn't fatigue you.
Brad (42m 37s):
And then on the flip side, it's super important to do that brief explosive, high Intensity strength training, that's your bread and butter as well as high Intensity sprinting explosive efforts like sprinting and jumping, which I put in. It's sort of a different category than lifting the weights or pulling the bands because, you know, it's, it's a different objective. The strength training is so important for bone density and muscle mass and muscle strength. But I also feel like that power, that explosiveness, that ability to move the body through space is, is critically important too.
Brian (43m 10s):
Okay. And yeah, I mean I would imagine most people probably don't have 40 minutes to do a morning routine, but I, what I will say that I've done, I mean I get up and take my dogs for a walk every morning, which is probably averages a 30 minute walk does sometimes fantastic. Less, yeah, sometimes more. And then I've been actually coming back and doing 10 minute of meditation and I've been using the Headspace app and I've really enjoyed that. So I've tried different apps and someone recommended Headspace and they have sort of their, their, their daily, you know, 10 minute meditation and then it's like simple, you know, easy. And so anyways, that's just something that I've tried to do to, and I do notice, like, like you said, it's just about the consistency of that morning routine, whether it's five minutes or it's 40 minutes, it's, it's more the act of just doing it.
Brad (44m 3s):
Oh my gosh. And my favorite example is the dog. Because if you own a dog, you made the commitment when you took that dog home to care for that animal as best you could. And so I don't care if you're not motivated or you're too lazy or you're too busy, you wanna answer to something higher than yourself. And that is the greatest source of motivation because if you look at that dog's face and those dogs, they're so attuned to their own circadian rhythm. Like they'll start pawing the door. They know it's time for the, the morning walk and you can't very well look 'em in the eye and say, well, I got a lot of emails in my inbox today, so I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna skip you. Okay, is that cool dude? And they're like, no, it's not cool. What are you talking about? I don't understand.
Brad (44m 43s):
And so, you know, the, the example of honoring your dog with a consistent morning walk is so strong. And even if you don't have a dog, you know, like make a commitment to get out and look at the other dogs in your neighborhood, And, you know, hope that they're getting that, that that good luck from their owner. So way to go, man, there's, there's nothing better than, you know, committing to take the dog out first thing in the morning. And for those listeners that are, that are nodding their head right now, I finally said goodbye to my, my great dog Lucy Stew after 15 years and every day, you know, it was the most special time, special memory of my life of getting her out and getting her out on the trail and jumping in the water and getting in the mud.
Brad (45m 24s):
And one time she chased a skunk and killed a skunk with their bare mouth shaking it to death and, you know, all this fun stuff that was part of my morning every single day, And, now it's not anymore. And I miss it like crazy. So, you know, en enjoying life people and, and do something for yourself first thing in the morning. That's, you know, as James clear number one bestselling book right now, atomic Habits says that's the best time to form a habit. 'cause that's when you have the most resolve and discipline and focus possible. So take that morning And, you know, make it, you know, set yourself up for a great day by doing something for yourself and your dog.
Brian (45m 60s):
Yeah, totally agree. I mean it's definitely something I look forward to and I'm sure the dogs do as well. What would you say as far as Resistance training? So, you know, let's just say you got your morning routine. You got your maybe one time a week of high Intensity repeat training where you're giving yourself enough time within those sets of 10 to 20 seconds to recover and come back just as strong, which is really important. Something that I, I do as well on the road bike, let's just say you do that once every week or once every 10 days, give or take. And then from there lifting, you know, for me I probably shoot for three to four days a week of Resistance training.
Brian (46m 41s):
Probably depends on the goals of the individual, but I think like you talked about as we get older, avoiding sarcopenia and things like that, you know, we wanna stay consistent and make sure that we put Resistance training up there with everything else.
Brad (46m 52s):
Yeah, well said. And what's been fascinating to me is this research from Dr. Doug McGee's body by science book, where they realized that the optimal protocol for getting stronger was one strength training session per week of a single set to failure in five major compound movement exercises. And the exercises in the book were the, the lap pull down, the chest press, the shoulder press, the seated row, and the leg press. And if you imagine all those, it's working all the major muscle groups of the body. But, it was so amazing to think that the subjects in the research did better from going once a week and pushing themselves to failure on, on each of those exercises rather than four times a week or twice a day for, you know, three days a week.
Brad (47m 45s):
And so the takeaway for the average person is that you can get stronger or at least maintain your current level of strength with a very minimal time commitment. If that's where we're starting from, you love to get in there. I know it enhances your life to go and, and pull that orange X three bar to the, to the stretch. But people who are, who are time limited and don't wanna risk the fatigue and burnout from overdoing it can get into the gym, you know, for, for these brief sessions and get really strong and really fit, not just average, but really fit from, you know, occasional visits to the gym. And so, because I am putting so much time and energy into that 40 minute morning exercise routine, which includes a lot of strength and Resistance, I'm not out there at the gym very often except for trying to adhere to that body by science protocol of doing once a week for a 12 minute session where I'm doing the major movements.
Brad (48m 45s):
And then I'm also sprinkling in a lot of Micro Workouts. And that has been, I think it's the greatest breakthrough in the fitness industry that I've seen in decades. This concept that you can demystify and decomplexify a strength training session all the way down to, and I use these examples all the time, like just outside of camera view is my pull up bar. And I will hit that pull up bar for maybe one set, you know, one set every other day and then once in a while I'll do a proper workout while I'll do, you know, a couple few sets in a row, but just one set every other day.
Brad (49m 25s):
Now we're gonna talk a year from now, Hey, I'm back on Brian's show. How's it going? Well, guess what I did, you know, I can do 16 pull-ups on my one set to full, full maximum effort to failure. I go all the way max, very difficult. But if I did that every other day times 365 days, we're talking about, you know, a couple thousand pulling my body up over the bar every year. And that is going to make a massive, fantastic contribution to my longevity, to my bone density, to my muscle mass. And how long does it take? Probably takes what? 30 seconds to do 16 pull-ups. So 30 seconds every other day is in the mix.
Brad (50m 7s):
And I don't think that's out of reach of anyone listening to spend, you know, a few seconds here and there during your busy day doing brief explosive efforts. I also use the example of a staircase. So if you have a staircase in your environment, whether it's the office, the home, whatever. When I see stairs, my rule is I sprint up them every time. So I'm, I'm hitting my feet like I'm at football practice or something and I know if you're not super fit, maybe your idea will be to, you know, hustle up the stairs on your first visit, walk back down and then try to sprint up after you got a little bit of warmup. So be sensible with these Micro Workouts, I get some good feedback from people saying, yeah, that's great Brad, you lift up your hex bar on your way to the garbage can.
Brad (50m 51s):
But what if you're, you know, not used to that, then you gotta warm up before you even lift one single heavy weight. Granted, I agree with that, but guess what, even if you're in a cubicle at a workplace, you can stand up and commence a set of 20 deep squats where you touch your butt to the chair and stand back up. And even if you're fit, it's going to be pretty difficult when you get to 15, 16, 17, 18. That's a tough little session to do 20 squats and it takes, you know, less than a minute. And if you sprinkle these Micro Workouts in throughout your busy day, you are gonna dramatically raise the platform from which you launch those formal strength training sessions when you go to the gym and see your personal trainer once a week or whatever you're doing.
Brad (51m 35s):
So I think the objective to just move more in general everyday life and sprinkle in some stuff that's physically challenging during our busy day that's largely sedentary. Maybe those who are, you know, putting in rebar all day are gonna not gonna need to go reach for the pull-up bar because they're physically strenuous job. But for most of us, we deserve to challenge the body. Once in a while, And, what happens is you get an instant energy boost because you're breathing hard, you're increasing blood flow and oxygen delivery to your brain and the other muscles, and it gives you energy boost as opposed to prolonged periods of stillness, which make you tired and make you hungry.
Brian (52m 15s):
Now great point with the, I mean, you know, you, you make a great point in the sense that I think a lot of people put Workouts into this frame of like needing to be an hour and you can sprinkle them throughout the day, which I think is a cool thing to do. I, it's not something I've actually really tried, but just because I give myself formal times to workout. But for someone that doesn't have those formal times to sprinkle those things in, maybe just do like a walking lunge through your house. I mean, you know, simple things like that. Yeah, they can go a long way. It's yeah.
Brad (52m 48s):
You know Katie Bowman, author of Move Your d n a and many other books, she's all about a, a nutritious movement lifestyle and she's not a gym person or a fitness freak or anything of the sort, but she has ideas to integrate movement and varied movement throughout your day. And this is our number one health objective. Many experts rate increasing general everyday movement above adhering to a devoted fitness regimen. and we have research, one of 'em is, is called the active Couch potato syndrome. And this is where they studied fit subjects who report a good devotion to regular Workouts and, and going to the gym So, we have those people that are up at 6:00 AM going to spin class fit subjects who otherwise lead sedentary dominant lifestyles.
Brad (53m 39s):
So, they go to the gym class, then they get on the subway for an hour, then they sit in front of a desk and then they ride the subway home then they engage in leisure time sitting on the couch, So, they have an otherwise sedentary dominant lifestyle despite their commitment to fitness. They show the same adverse blood values and disease risk factors as people who don't exercise. So if you think about a week in terms of, you know, how many hours are in a week, Brian, any listeners, for a free pot of Brad's macadamia masterpiece, the answer is 168. So there's 168 hours in a week. If you're a super badass who goes to the gym and is a big fitness freak in your neighborhood, maybe you're putting in eight hours a week of, of fitness, which is a fantastic commitment.
Brad (54m 28s):
Maybe you're a a complete triathlon freak and you're doing 15 hours a week, but that's another 150 other additional hours of how you spend your time. A lot of that should be sleep. I'm gonna assume another chunk is doing cognitive work where you might be also still. And so now we have this critical obligation to sprinkle in those 32nd bursts or that five minute walk where you get up from your desk and walk around the block or, Hey, congratulations you got your dog out this morning. What about at nighttime? The dog's looking at you again like, Hey, it's nighttime. we gotta protect the territory again. we gotta, we gotta patrol the grounds. Let's go. And so a five minute walk at night combined with a 15 minute walk in the morning, whatever you can do to be more active, that's gonna have a huge return on investment for your health as well as your cognitive performance.
Brad (55m 18s):
They have research where James Hewitt the cognitive middle gear. He is a UK researcher, and he came up with this term where we're very busy every day and we're getting, you know, we're, we're getting a lot done But. It's kind of middle gear stuff where it's not that challenging because our focus is waning because we're spending too much time staring at a screen and answering emails or paying bills online or doing whatever we're doing that's beneath our highest cognitive capacity because we refuse to give ourselves frequent breaks for fitness bursts or outdoor time or things that refresh the brain and our cognitive function so we can really think clearly and not space and forget where we put files in our, in our database and things like that.
Brad (56m 6s):
And so I'm a big fan of like taking, you asked me about what my daily routine is like. I take a ton of breaks from the screen that are very short and duration. I might put for five minutes, I might go get a bowl of fruit that's a five minute break. I might take a 20 minute break to lay in the sun and take a nap. But I'm, you know, I'm working hard and I'm working, whatever you wanna say, long hours. But there's so many breaks sprinkled in there, and I'm in different places. I'm standing up, I'm sitting down, I'm, I'm laying in bed with my laptop like a lazy guy, and then I'm out doing another Micro workout. So it's a day of varied movement, And, you know, continual breaks rather than these long slogs, which not only, you know, are bad for our physical bodies.
Brad (56m 49s):
They're not good for our brain function either.
Brian (56m 53s):
Well said. and we were gonna talk all today about optimizing testosterone naturally. And I, and I will say, 'cause you did a 10 part series, so definitely check that out on, on the b Rad Podcast. But I would probably say that tops of the list is, I would imagine is some of the things you already talked about, which is, you know, these high Intensity, you know, Workouts that, you know, not overly stressful, but making sure that they're done in a, you know, sort of a, the right manner in the sense that giving yourself enough rest and then between sets and then also strength training, right? I mean, I don't know, probably what would be more optimal than, than maintaining or gaining strength and muscle as we get older to helping with testosterone levels.
Brad (57m 38s):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this, this is, you know, the, the, the magic is to push your body hard and ask a lot from your body with these brief explosive efforts. And this causes a spike of adaptive hormones into the bloodstream that circulate for hours afterward testosterone and human growth hormone chief among them. So when you pick up those, those heavy weights and do a few reps, you get an instant boost in hormone status. And that's why you feel kind of alert, energized, focused, you get dopamine, you get you, you get the, the androgenic hormones. And then on the flip side, as we talked about the chronic overproduction of stress hormones, antagonizes, testosterone, So, we have, for example, in the endurance community, the people that are training hard are suppressing their sex hormones because they're the, of the nature of their overly stressful exercise programs.
Brad (58m 35s):
And especially the extreme devotion to the, to endurance at the expense of, you know, building muscle mass and doing explosive work. So exercise can be like the greatest thing for sex hormone status or it can trash it. And the most extreme and evident example of this is the incidence of amenorrhea, the loss of menstruation among Elite female athletes whose body Fat gets too low and stress hormones get too high to where they stop menstruating. And so if you back up for a second and think about our most prominent biological drive as humans, the the single best determinant of our health status is our reproductive function, because that's what we're, we're, we're animals.
Brad (59m 20s):
That's what we're all all about. That's our number one biological drive. And so if your reproductive function is diminished in any way on account of your lifestyle, you know, you have a major problem and a major disconnect with health and vitality and longevity. So for the, the, the male, you can measure this by libido is probably the best way to assess whether your training program is sensible or whether it's overly stressful. And if it's, if it's, if it's not going hand in hand with elevated or stable libido, you know that you're overdoing it. It's as simple as that. And same for the female. And so I think that's the gateway for anyone listening who's into fitness and into active lifestyle is like, there's that tendency to overdo it and tank your hormones in the name of, you know, you might be looking fit, but you're not fit for reproduction and you're not fit in in that health status category, which hopefully means more to you than, you know, going for the Olympic gold.
Brad (1h 0m 22s):
Which, you know, the Elite Athlete a lot of times makes a sacrifice in general health to try to get marginal, incremental gains. But I don't think too many people are interested in that, in that lifestyle choice. you know what I mean?
Brian (1h 0m 34s):
Yeah, yeah. No, that's a great point. Well, this was great Brad. we can obviously go on for hours. What, what do you, what are you up to next? I know you have your macadamia nut butter, what else is on the horizon? You also have, you know, your mofo right? You're still got the mofo with ancestral supplements. Anything else on that? Yeah, you
Brad (1h 0m 59s):
Know, what's exciting now is my main man, mark SISs and my longtime writing partner and and old friend who, you know, we've, we've worked on the Primal Blueprint lifestyle movement for so long. He's launched a new minimalist footwear company called pva. And it's a five toe zero drop shoe, which is incredible because it's designed in a way that everyone can use it for all manner of everyday lifestyle activity. But getting those five toes individually articulated in footwear is what brings your foot back into the natural function and range of motion that it's intended to. Unlike any shoe that encases the toes into a toe box, even a minimalist shoe.
Brad (1h 1m 42s):
So I think it's a great breakthrough in minimalist footwear. We're just launching the company now, so it's really exciting and we're, we're really busy spreading the word. So I'm, you know, I'm obsessed with footwear. I've been enjoying minimalist shoes for so long. And so Now I would direct people to go check out p luva.com. I can give your listeners a code to try their first pair at a discount. So that's my little plug for what I'm doing. And we're also working on a book, Sisson and I, on the topic of longevity and it's sort of a low tech approach to longevity. 'cause for old school, old school guys like us, mark just turned 70 famously on Instagram.
Brad (1h 2m 23s):
They had the celebrations that he's still still kicking butt at 70. I'm 58 and I'm sitting back here and looking at this influence of tech into fitness. And a lot of it makes me shake my head because it seems like we oftentimes can miss the, the joy of the simple pleasures of life and how important those are for health, vitality and longevity. And instead we're trying to quantify everything. And don't get me wrong, a lot of that stuff is cool and it's good. And if it, if it's exciting to people to, you know, upload your workout onto Strava and see how you rank, you know, how fast you run around the block compared to 18,000 other people, that's all good.
Brad (1h 3m 5s):
But we can also get away from an intuitive approach to exercise and fitness when we try to quantify everything. And so I'm coming from the old school where, you know, we assessed how we felt in the morning and a approached our training accordingly rather than trying to treat ourselves like robots because there's so many other influences. So I'm in favor of an intuitive approach to fitness where, hey, if you go to the gym and today's Tuesday and that's your day to do five sets of this and two sets of that, and 27 minutes on the exercise bike and back for three more sets, but you're not feeling like it and something crick clicks in your right shoulder and your mind's elsewhere, there are times when you can give yourself permission to depart from a robotic mechanical approach to fitness and just go with the flow and allow that motivation and that energy to kind of build naturally to where you're, you know, you're more aligned with, with what your, what your mind and body really need on that particular day.
Brian (1h 4m 7s):
Well said. And I, I'm going to order a pair of those PVA because I, I actually, yeah, so I will, I will let you know how that goes and yeah, that's pva.com. I'll put a link in the show notes and yeah, we'll, we'll give a, a discount code for the, for the listeners to, to try those out as well. 'cause I have another pair of minimalist shoes, so I'm com I'll compare them to those and, and see, you know, see how it goes. So lots of great stuff, Brad, I appreciate you coming on and check out the b Rad Podcast as well. Love it. And anything else you want to add before we sign off?
Brad (1h 4m 48s):
Yeah, I would love to connect with people. You can see what's going on at Brad Kearns dot com. I have a new online course about cold plunging the right way and getting away from some of the hype that it's supposed to be this suffer fest where, you know, really it's called therapeutic cold exposure. So I had fun putting that course together and we've got a good response to that. I also have a course about how to organize your own morning exercise routine and some examples exercises you can do. So lots of fun resources and I'm just, I'm just happy to be walking this path. I think you might've said this before we hit record, Brian, but you know, we are learning from our mistakes too and just, you know, trying to do the best we can.
Brad (1h 5m 33s):
Oh no, you said it at the start of the show. Yeah. That, you know, sometimes we're allowed to change our opinion and try new things and I think you deserve a lot of credit for, for, for being on that mode. And I'm trying very hard to do the same myself where I'm not locked into a corner and, and, and screaming at people that this is, this is my way and this is what you should do. I'd rather get people figuring things out for themselves. So hopefully we'll continue with that, with that message. Yeah,
Brian (1h 5m 60s):
Yeah. Who knows what's gonna come up the, in the next time we talk, but, you know, always gotta evolve, right? So
Brad (1h 6m 7s):
Yeah, I mean that's, that's funny. And I think sometimes, you know, if anyone wants to use that against me or against you, I will want to back up a few steps and say, look, you know, all this diet obsession and the different experts that you have that can talk for an hour about this aspect or that aspect, it's really about eliminating processed foods, getting your ass moving more during daily life, getting enough sleep. And so I don't, I I, I will, I will deflect any criticism that I'm a flip flopper, like a politician, you know, gets heat for and, and all that kind of thing. 'cause I'm, you know, I've been thinking of the same thing and prioritizing the same stuff over and over and, and for years and years and, you know, that, that feels good to just kind of cut through the hype and realize that natural nutritious foods are, are the way to go.
Brad (1h 6m 60s):
That might not be a, a bestselling book to say, Hey, cut out junk food and eat nutritious things that you enjoy. But the secrets, and that's why we're talking about this low tech approach to longevity, that, you know, the secrets are there. It doesn't matter what your budget is, you can do this on the cheap, and that's what's good about it,
Brian (1h 7m 18s):
Right. Stick to the fundamentals. Right. And you can't really go wrong with that. So,
Brad (1h 7m 24s):
Yeah. And you said, you said fundamentals fundamental, not moderation. He didn't say that people, he said fundamentals. Because when I hear people and, and sometimes I get into a conversation like this with normal, ordinary people, my old friends or whoever it is, and someone will say, yeah, yeah, that's right. you know, it's like everything in moderation. And I go, no, no, no, no, no. We cannot apply a moderate approach to our dietary scrutiny today because we are bombarded with so much shit food that we have to be extreme and disciplined and devoted and hypervigilant to everything we put in our mouth because there's so much garbage out there. So there's no, there's no call for moderation when it comes to trying to clean up your diet.
Brad (1h 8m 8s):
Otherwise you're gonna get stuck in that tailspin where you're consuming foods that interfere with your ability to burn energy internally, and you're gonna become addicted to those foods. I had a guest named Dr. Joan Lan from Stanford University. She's an expert in food addiction. And it's like these foods are, you know, on the same level of the, the opiate drugs where it's a tough thing to extricate from unless you apply extreme devotion and discipline. And same with fitness and exercise. And yeah, you know, I try to get out to the, I, I try to do this, I try to do that. You have to make a disciplined and sincere commitment to get that damn dog out the door every single morning. Otherwise you're a disgrace as a dog owner.
Brad (1h 8m 50s):
But boom,
Brian (1h 8m 54s):
Well said, well said. Well, thanks again, Brad. Lots of great stuff. So we will talk in the near future and have a great day.
Brad (1h 9m 2s):
Thanks Brian.
Brian (1h 9m 5s):
Thanks for listening to the GETLEAN E Clean podcast. I understand there are millions of other Podcasts out there, and you've chosen to listen to mine and I appreciate that. Check out the show notes@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode. Feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member that's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again, and have a great day.
