AMA #17: Making Time for Fitness, Top Sleep Tools & Best Learning Strategies

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life I'm Andrew huberman and I'm a

professor of neurobiology and

Opthalmology at Stanford school of

medicine today is an askme anything or

AMA episode but before I get to

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premium subscriber is for you so without

further Ado let's get to answering your

questions the first question is about

scheduling Fitness that is how to ensure

that you get sufficient number of

resistance training and cardiovascular

workouts per week in order to best

benefit your immediate and long-term

Health now I did episode of The hubin

Lab podcast all about what I call a

foundational Fitness protocol the

foundational Fitness protocol is the one

that I've followed more or less for the

last 30 plus years and it certainly is

not the only protocol that works out

there but it's a schedule that most

people can adhere to over time and that

checks off the boxes for what the

current research tells us we need in

order to maximize our cardiovascular

health to maximize our neuromuscular

health and to do so with a minimal time

commitment now I've already put together

and I provide a link in the show note

captions for the foundational Fitness

protocol in the form of a PDF which

spells out which workouts are done on

which days what the various workouts

look like including sets and Reps what

options you have in terms of

cardiovascular exercise I personally

like to run but you could also use a

rower you can use a stationary bike

there's a lot of optionality inside of

the foundational Fitness protocol and by

the way the foundational Fitness

protocol is available to all of you

completely zero cost you don't even need

to sign up for our neural network

newsletter although you can if you like

and again you can find that by following

a link in the show note captions or

simply going to hubman lab.com going to

the menu tab scrolling down to

newsletter and then you can scroll down

to the foundational Fitness protocol you

can view it online print it out again

doesn't cost anything and there's no

barrier to entry meaning you don't need

to do anything to access it you can just

look at it or download it or print it

whatever you like the basic structure of

the foundational Fitness protocol is

three resistance training sessions per

week and three cardiovascular training

sessions per week and then one complete

rest day now that might sound like a lot

to some of you but in fact none of the

workouts is particularly long I think

the longest workout in that entire

foundational Fitness protocol is about

60 minutes maybe 75 minutes if you're

moving slowly through the gym because

somebody else is in the way or because

you're you know checking your phone a

little too often as we all sometimes do

that sort of thing but the basic

structure is as follows for me the

foundational Fitness protocol starts as

day one on Monday but you could start it

as day one on any day of the week

frankly so day one for me is to train

legs so that's quadriceps hamstrings and

calves and tibialis work the front of

the shin uh for those of you that uh

don't know I'm a big fan of doing

tibialis work then the next day is a

complete day off during which you could

do if you wanted something like

deliberate heat or deliberate cold

exposure or both but you don't have to

it's just nice to have a complete day

off after training legs because if you

train legs properly often times it can

be a bit tiring and the next day you're

recovering then the following day is

either a cardiovascular training session

of about 20 to 30 minutes of say a jog

at a slightly more rapid clip than one

would consider Zone 2 cardio Zone 2

cardio is where you can carry out a

conversation so a little bit faster than

that or if you're not feeling like your

legs are recovered enough to do that you

could do the resistance training work on

that day the resistance training work

that falls in the middle of the week is

Believe It or Not torso I know that's

for some of you that are into more kind

of bodybuilding type routines training

your entire torso on one day might seem

like a lot but really that day just

involves some pushing so some overhead

shoulder press type workouts or dips

maybe some bench presses if that's your

thing as well as some pulling so some

rows and some pull-ups or chin-ups

things of that sort again all tailored

to you so that you're not doing anything

that aggravates any pre-existing

injuries and you're not going to do

anything that's going to induce injuries

okay so there's some pushing and pulling

maybe a little bit of neck work if you

need some additional neck strength that

sort of thing so with legs on Monday

rest on Tuesday that falls either on

Wednesday or Thursday depending on how

recovered your legs were then the next

day which for me typically falls on a

Friday is a high-intensity interval

training session although really it's

just about VO2 max it's about getting

maximum heart rate where you're

breathing really really hard and that's

a very short workout the total duration

of that workout is anywhere from 8 to 15

minutes total so for me it involves

getting on an airdine bike those are

those bikes with some resistance cuz

there's a fan although you could do this

on a row or basically anything where you

can exert yourself to get your heart

rate way way up and breathe very very

hard where not going to injure your

muscular skeletal system you're not

going to do any soft tissue damage so

you need to figure out what that is for

you again the PDF explains how to select

that for me it typically means getting

on the airdine bike and pedaling very

hard for about 20 seconds then resting

10 seconds 20 seconds hard 10 seconds

rest 20 seconds hard for a total of

about eight Cycles by the end of which

I'm breathing extremely hard my heart

rate is way way up and then I'll just

shower and head about my day and then

the following day which typically for me

falls on a Saturday although again we're

going to talk about flexibility and how

to build flexibility into the schedule

the Saturday workout is typically things

like biceps triceps some calves maybe a

bit more neck work and some abdominal

work excuse me so basically small body

parts that can recover pretty quickly

and that workout typically takes only

about 45 to 50 minutes maybe 60 minutes

maximum and then the following day which

is of course Sunday is a day in which I

try and get outside and move as much as

possible so I'll typically do the longer

Sunday cardio workout as either a rock

so a backpack with a weight in it by the

way if you don't own a ruck sack you can

just put a you know a gallon water a jug

in there full and then you know drink it

as you go it'll lighten as you go or you

could get a weight vest if you have the

resources to do that there's some great

weight vests out there um a varying

weight uh you can uh throw a kid on your

shoulders if you got a kid that wants to

be carried on your shoulders um you can

do it alone listening to an Audi book

listening to music or in total silence

I've done all these various versions by

the way you can do it with family

members or with friends I'll sometimes

do this with my significant other one of

the great things about this long Sunday

workout is that it's extremely flexible

in terms of how social you are or uh

whether or not you do it in isolation

whether or not you do it on concrete or

on dirt it's very versatile for instance

if I have friends over and I want to

spend time with them but I also want to

get outdoors and do this workout and if

they're interested in getting some

outdoor movement as well we'll all just

head out for a hike and if they are less

fit than I am or intend to move more

slowly well then I'll throw on a you

know a 10 or 15 maybe even 30 lb um

backpack so that I get a good workout

out of it and if they're faster than I

am and they're the sort of person who

you know is a triathlete I've got some

friends who are triathletes and they

want to move at a really fast clip well

then I'm not bringing any weight pack

and I'm just going to ask them to you

know uh wait up for me because I'm going

to have a hard time keeping up but I'll

have to really push myself as I go along

so a lot of Versatility I don't measure

my heart rate during any of these

workouts by the way that's not my

preferred way to do things I know other

people like to measure heart rate as

they go I find it's just really nice to

get out once a week if possible out ofd

doors and just move my body as much as

possible so that I head into the week

knowing that I got some really terrific

outdoor time in nature while benefiting

my cardiovascular system and often while

socializing with important people in my

life as well okay so that's the summary

of the foundational Fitness protocol and

one thing that I really like about it is

that the total time commitment is

actually not that great if you step back

from it you realize there's you know a

brief 12-minute workout there's an

hourong weight training workout there's

a long hike sure but then there's a

20-minute jog it's really not that much

time when you consider the overall

benefits to one's Health now one very

important feature of the foundational

Fitness protocol is to build some

flexibility into it you know the way I

described it up until now was okay

Monday legs Tuesday rest Wednesday

cardio Thursday torso Friday

high-intensity interval training VO2 max

Saturday small body parts biceps triceps

calves Etc Sunday long slow distance

cardio but in reality sometimes I have

to travel on a Monday so I don't have

the option to train legs that day in

which case what I will do is either

slide that workout to

Sunday meaning I'm doing both long slow

distance cardio and the leg workout or

I'll slide it to Tuesday which is

typically a rest day however sometimes

I'm traveling on a Monday I don't have

access to a gym to train my legs

properly so what do I do do I skip leg

day no I don't skip leg day typically

unless I'm sick or I'm extremely sleep

deprived or there's some other major

stress in my life what I'll typically do

is I will plan for it by training my

legs on Sunday or if I don't have access

to a place where I can train my legs

properly on Sunday I'll just shift it to

Tuesday okay now the question always

becomes if I were to move that leg

workout to Sunday just by way of

necessity because I'm traveling on a

Monday do I also do the long slow

distance work that I typically do on

Sunday and the answer is yes if I'm well

rested so if I'm well rested and well

fed I'm not feeling like I'm fighting

off any kind of illness and I have the

time what I'll do is I'll train my legs

in the gym on Sunday and then I'll head

out for I don't know an hourlong walk in

the neighborhood or something like that

so I'm probably not training my legs

hard and then going hiking hard all day

although I've done that before but then

I'm sure to rest completely the next day

which is Monday now what if I move the

leg workout to Tuesday do then I take

Wednesday off completely

well for me the way I train legs is

typically with a lot of intensity so if

I'm going to train legs typically the

next day will be a complete day off no

matter what but that's not always the

case I think as long as you're not

moving your workouts around constantly

it's perfectly fine to train your legs

really hard on a Tuesday because you

have to because you couldn't train them

on Monday and then on Wednesday rather

than go out for a jog I might train

torso and I might back off on the

intensity a little bit and then I'll

take a day off I will say that anytime I

do resistance training workouts two days

in a row I make sure that I take a

complete day off the following third day

just for sake of recovery I'm not

somebody that recovers particularly well

from any form of exercise I find that if

I train longer than 90 minutes

especially with resistance training if I

crank up the intensity too much I tend

to get sick or I tend to stop making

progress with my resistance training

sessions so the basic takeaway here is

it's perfectly fine to slide a

resistance training session such as legs

forward a day or back a day okay so I

guess back a day would be from Monday to

Sunday or forward from Monday to Tuesday

but then you're going to want to make

some adjustments accordingly so that you

don't get sick or you don't overtrain

and that sort of thing now let's say

that I train my legs on Tuesday then I

do torso work on Wednesday and then I

take the next day completely off so I

take Thursday completely off well then

Friday rolls around and I haven't done

any cardiovascular training that week

except for the walk that I did on Sunday

what am I going to do do I do my V2 Max

and a 30-minute jog sure that's what I

would do I would combine the two

cardiovascular workouts that I normally

do in the middle of the week by for

instance going out for a 20 or 30 minute

Jog and then at the end doing some V2

Max work such that by the end of Friday

I'm caught up with that cardiovascular

training and then on Saturday I would

just go right ahead and do those small

body parts training and then on Sunday I

would take a hike and that sort of thing

so basically what I'm saying is the

foundation Fitness protocol provides a

scaffold of Ideal what you would do if

you had a completely non-negotiable

mindset where you said okay Monday's

always legs Wednesday is always this

Thursday is always that so basically

what I'm describing is trying to achieve

optimal right training certain things on

certain days doing certain things in

certain ways that wasn't meant to rhyme

by the way but the reality is we all

have travel we all get run down we all

have lack of sleep at times we have

stressful episodes in life so for me the

best solution to that is to basically

allow any one workout either resistance

training or cardiovascular workout to

slide back or forward by one day which

means sometimes doubling up on workouts

for a given day to make sure that I

check off those boxes of getting three

resistance training sessions per week

and three cardiovascular training

sessions per week again for the

cardiovascular training sessions it's a

long slow distance it's a moderate 20 a

30 minute cardiovascular training

session and then it's that shorter VO2

max cardiovascular training s and

sometimes doubling those up on the same

day so that I make sure that by the end

of the week I've achieved what I want to

achieve which is I've trained my legs

I've trained my torso I've trained my

arms any small body parts that need

additional work for balance or

stabilization or aesthetic reasons you

get that in but also that you get the

base of the long slow distance endurance

you get the slightly more intense or

rather faster cardiovascular training

session and then you get your heart rate

up up up at least once per week doing

that high-intensity interval training

now as I describ this I realized that I

might be taking what a few minutes ago

was fairly simple in design and making

it more complex why well some people

feel that as soon as you introduce

flexibility into a schedule you remove

of course the non-negotiable aspect of

it and then people get really confused

are they overtraining are they under

trining is it okay for instance if you

can't train Monday Tuesday Wednesday to

then just train Thursday Friday Saturday

Sunday I think everybody is an

individual everybody needs to modify

their schedule Accord according to the

demands on their life and their

particular Fitness needs but I will say

this I've found having tried many many

different Fitness schedules many many

different combinations of resistance

training and cardiovascular training

that the best solution is to find what

you can do on a consistent basis and to

try and do that as many days and weeks

of the year as possible with the

understanding that sometimes you're

simply not going to be able to meet that

schedule which is why you allow for this

sliding back and forward of individual

workouts doubling occasionally two

workouts per day in order to stay on

schedule but and this is very important

also allowing yourself to sometimes just

skip a training day yes I said it so

sometimes just skip a training day

you're feeling a little rundown it's

late in the day you don't want to drink

caffeine to train because then it's

going to throw off your sleep well I'm

the first person to say you know Skip

torso training day and then maybe on

small body parts day which for me falls

on Saturday instead of just doing biceps

triceps with some isolation exercises

make sure you do a few chins pull-ups

dips and things like that to make sure

that you hit those torso muscles as well

skipping a workout every once in a while

is not going to Crater your entire

fitness program it's simply not that

said for sake of physical health and for

sake of just feeling good about your

commitment and follow-through to your

fitness regimen you should try on

average to make somewhere between 85 and

95% of your workouts and if you schedule

things well and in particular if you

leave your phone out of the gym uh if

you're able to do that I know sometimes

we need the phone to communicate with

people or the potential to communicate

with people if people need to get a hold

of us but if you can leave your phone

outside of the gym you'll be amazed at

how quickly you move through these

workouts likewise with your

cardiovascular training sessions now one

important feature of flexibility that I

haven't talked about yet is flexibility

within a day so for me just personally

again this is my personal preference

this is by no means Dogma I prefer to

get my workouts done first thing in the

morning so I like to get up hydrate get

some electrolytes in my system get some

caffeine in my system if I'm going to

work out that's right I said it I do

believe if you experience a crash in

energy in the afternoon delaying your

caffeine by about 90 minutes or so after

waking could be very beneficial I know

there's some controversy around that but

almost everybody that tries it finds

that that's the case again no obligation

to do that it's just a suggestion to you

know perhaps experiment with if you have

an afternoon crash but for me and I

think for most people if you're going to

workout first thing in the morning and

you like caffeine before a workout drink

caffeine for first thing in the morning

that's certainly what I do if I'm going

to work out that day I like to have my

workouts done before 9:00 a.m. and

ideally before 8:30 a.m. so that I can

move into my workday however there are

days where that simply doesn't happen

and then the question is is it okay to

move a workout from its typical time

like for me 7:30 a.m. or so to the

afternoon and the answer is yes there's

simply no reason why that's not okay

it's not going to cause a significant

diminishment in performance if anything

that data point to the fact that for

sake of physical performance and output

workouts in the afternoon are probably

more beneficial I don't know about that

result I mean that's certainly what the

data say I know for me I'm most alert

and have the most amount of energy first

thing in the morning and so that's when

my workouts tend to be best but if I

can't make a workout in the morning I'll

sometimes do it in the afternoon around

2:00 or 3 p.m. making sure however that

I don't consume so much caffeine before

that workout that it's going to disrupt

my sleep now there's another feature of

training which is like sunlight like

meals like

socialization physical exercise provides

an entrainment mechanism that is a

predictive mechanism for your so-called

autonomic nervous system that makes it

such that at a given hour of the day

that you normally train so for me around

7:30 a.m. or so you'll notice that

there's going to be a peak in physical

and mental energy that's right if you

work out at a given time pretty

consistently your autonomic nervous

system will start to anticipate that

timing and you'll start to feel an

increase in energy around that time that

is not an imagined thing it's a real

thing it's a short-term entrainment as

we call it this is something that I'll

probably visit in a future full length

episode of The hubman Lab podcast but

what you'll notice is that around the

time that you normally train or run or

whatever you want to call it you start

to feel an increase in energy and you

can leverage that by going ahead and

training but if you don't have the

opportunity to train then I do think

it's a good idea to still get that

training session in at a later time

during the day if you have the

opportunity otherwise you may have to

slide it to uh the day before or the day

after as we talked about a few minutes

ago or you may have to skip entirely the

point here is that it's always going to

be best to complete the workout if you

can complete the workout safely and

without disrupting your nighttime sleep

I think that's really the biggest

takeaway I personally am not going to

compromise sleep and my overall health

in order to get workouts in every once

in a while I'll force myself to wake up

especially early meaning I'll cash out a

couple hours of sleep that I would

normally get so I normally get up around

I don't know 6:00 a.m. or 6:30 kind of

depends on when I went to sleep but

sometimes I'll give up 2 hours as sleep

to get a workout in in the morning if

I'm going to fly that day I will

sometimes do that however if I'm very

fatigued if I've been exposed to colds

and flu I'm feeling kind of rundown then

I won't do that I'll prioritize sleep

most of the time I prioritize sleep but

there are those occasions in which I'll

prioritize the workout each and all of

us have those options and my suggestion

is to really look at things on a Case by

case meaning you as an individual and on

a daily basis taking into account what

happened the day before how stressed you

are how much sleep you're getting how

much Expos exposure to colds and flu and

to pay attention to how hard you've been

training recently you know if you're on

a family vacation and you want more time

with family are you really going to

compromise time with family in order to

get your workouts in I think that would

be probably a bad idea you know if I'm

honest I think um you want to prioritize

social life that's super important but

then of course you don't want to

prioritize social life to the detriment

of your physical health so it's all a

bit of give and take and what I've tried

to describe here is again a recap of the

foundational Fitness protocol the places

where there's some flexibility you can

move workouts back a day or forward a

day if you like you could double up if

you like especially if you're getting

great rest and you're well fed Etc and

you can also move the workout up or down

in the day depending on how much energy

you have how much sleep you've gotten

and of course how you know rigid you are

with yourself some people are just

really rigid they are completely in the

non-negotiable stance they get their

workout in no matter what because they

feel as if they don't then they're going

to be grumpy or they're going to fall

off schedule other people like me try to

get the workouts done I would say

anywhere from 85 to 95% of the time I

get those workouts done occasionally I

skip them typically because life stress

travel or some sort of low-grade um

illness you know a cold or a flu or

something of that sort I get those

pretty rarely but they do happen so

that's really how I answer this question

of how to build flexibility into one's

fitness schedule I should also mention

that I'm a big believer in periodization

so I will do four-month blocks of

training heavier with the weights so

that's in the 3 to 5 repetition range

then another 3 to four month block will

follow where I'm training slightly less

heavy so I'll typically be using

anywhere from 5 to 8 repetition range

and then for the next four month block

I'll be using somewhere between 8 and 15

repetition range every once in a while

I'll mix it up so that you know if I've

been training heavy a lot I might do a

lighter workout or if I've been training

lighter I might do a heavy workout again

not super rigid I personally find that

by being strict and rigid about the

scheduling about the Reps and the sets

etc for most of the time meaning about

85 to 95% of workouts and across the

year that things just work out great

you'll make constant progress without

having to drive yourself and everybody

else crazy with uh extreme rigidity and

compulsivity around training and then of

course you can enjoy those days off you

can enjoy the flexibility in your

schedule because yes physical fitness is

wonderful but unless you're an athlete

especially a professional athlete really

physical fitness is about being able to

lean into other aspects of life with

more Vigor at least that's what it's

about for me and I think that's what

it's about for most people thank you for

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