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On this week's episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Founder and CEO Will Ahmed sits down with WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist Dr. Kristen Holmes to discuss her new book, Aligned, and what it takes to build a more resilient nervous system. Drawing on her journey from elite athlete to championship-winning coach, researcher, and human performance expert, Dr. Holmes shares what she's learned about the connection between recovery, resilience, and sustained performance. Will and Dr. Holmes explore why the time spent away from your craft can be just as important as the work itself, how sleep consistency and HRV can provide insight into the health of your nervous system, and why balancing stress with adequate recovery is critical for performing at your best. Dr. Holmes also breaks down her HEAL framework, explores how trauma and an outcome-driven mindset can shape our behaviors, and shares practical strategies for building greater agency, resilience, and alignment in everyday life.Buy Aligned by Dr. Kristen HolmesShop Meridian by WHOOP(00:00) Trailer (00:55) Introduction to Aligned by Dr. Kristen Holmes(02:25) How A Healthy Nervous System Promotes Healthy Aging(05:31) Impact of Childhood Trauma on High Performers(08:22) 70% of Americans Experience Trauma(10:15) Why Recovery Matters More Than You Think(16:17) Kristen's Collegiate Coaching Experience(22:07) What Overworking and Overtraining Looks Like(26:44) Importance of Sleep Consistency(30:17) The HEAL FrameworkSupport the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInBuy Aligned by Dr. Kristen Holmes: Follow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn
Send us Fan MailWhat does it really take to build a career in professional sport?This week on Leave Your Mark, I sit down with strength and conditioning coach Jason Martin as he prepares to begin a new chapter as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs.Jason's path began early, earning his first training certification at just 16 before completing his Physical Education degree at McGill University. His career would eventually take him through CrossFit, professional tennis, Major League Baseball, more than a decade of working with hockey players, and three seasons in player development with the Pittsburgh Penguins.But this conversation is about much more than Jason's résumé.We talk about the influence of mentorship, particularly his relationship with Andy O'Brien, and why experience can't simply be replaced by collecting certifications. Jason shares his thoughts on asking for feedback, recognizing your limitations, building genuine relationships, and allowing a career to develop without trying to engineer every next step.We also dig into one of the most important challenges of working in professional sport: earning the trust of athletes who didn't necessarily choose you to work with them.Jason's philosophy is refreshingly simple. Ask questions. Listen. Understand what the athlete needs. Be good to people. Do quality work. And give trust the time it needs to develop.A great conversation about coaching, mentorship, relationships, experience, and the long game of building a meaningful career in high performance.If you liked this EP, please take the time to rate and comment, share with a friend, and connect with us on social channels IG @Kingopain, TW @BuiltbyScott, LI+FB Scott Livingston. You can find all things LYM at www.LYMLab.com, download your free Life Lab Starter Kit today and get busy living https://lymlab.com/free-lym-lab-starter/Please take the time to visit and connect with our sponsors, they are an essential part of our success:www.ReconditioningHQ.comwww.FreePainGuide.com
What if healthcare wasn't just about treating disease—but helping people become the strongest, healthiest, most vibrant version of themselves?In this fascinating and forward-thinking episode, I sit down with John Goldman, Human Performance Advocate, visionary in Precision Medicine, and Founder & CEO of Rebel Health Alliance.John shares why he rebelled against the traditional healthcare system and created a revolutionary parallel healthcare model focused on prevention, optimization, and coordinated personalized care. Instead of waiting until people get sick, Rebel Health Alliance is designed to help individuals proactively improve their health, energy, resilience, and quality of life through data-driven, highly personalized support.We explore how modern lifestyles are quietly making many people sick and overweight—and why small daily habits, consistency, structure, and proactive health choices can dramatically transform our future.John explains how Rebel Health Alliance combines cutting-edge diagnostic technology with a carefully curated team of experts—including doctors, strength coaches, dieticians, and epigenetic counselors—all coordinated around the individual. Through virtual care, members gain convenient access to personalized support through text, voice, and video while keeping costs more affordable than traditional healthcare models.One of the most inspiring moments in the conversation is when John shares his personal goal of becoming a “bad ass grandpa”—living a long, healthy, energetic life filled with vitality and purpose. His mission is not simply helping people avoid illness, but helping them truly thrive.We also discuss:Why prevention matters more than waiting for diseaseThe limitations of insurance-based healthcareThe importance of discipline and daily habitsRebuilding energy, focus, and resiliencePrecision medicine and personalized careThe role of accountability and support in long-term transformationCost-sharing options for unexpected medical emergenciesWhy health optimization should feel personal and human—not transactionalJohn's passion for empowering people to take ownership of their health is contagious, and this episode offers hope for anyone searching for a more proactive and personalized approach to wellness.You can learn more about John and Rebel Health Alliance at: Rebel Health Alliance WebsiteConnect with John on social media:Twitter/X @JohnGoldmanInstagramLinkedInIf you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who is ready to take a proactive approach to their health and future.Listen, Share, and SupportIf this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who may need hope today.Be sure to subscribe, leave a rating and review, and help us spread more healing and inspiration to the world.Free Resource for HealingIf you're ready to release stress, calm your mind, and begin healing from within, visit:
NASM Master Instructor Roundtable: A Show for Personal Trainers
The main question this episode answers is: What is the LESS (Landing Error Scoring System) test, and how can fitness professionals use its research-based assessment to reduce ACL injury risk in clients, especially when considering anticipated versus unanticipated movement? The LESS test is a movement assessment that helps identify lower extremity dysfunction and ACL injury risk by evaluating how clients land from a jump, whether they know what to expect (anticipated) or are reacting to new stimuli (unanticipated). NASM experts Wendy Batts and Marty Miller break down recent, peer-reviewed NASM research from the open-access Journal of Fitness, Wellness, and Human Performance to demonstrate how to accurately use the LESS test with athletes and everyday clients. This “Master Instructor Roundtable” guides listeners through the test's setup, scoring system, practical applications, and the science supporting both anticipated and unanticipated testing situations. Listeners will learn how to integrate this assessment safely, score it correctly using video, and interpret results to inform program design that decreases ACL and other lower limb injury risks. By the end of the episode, fitness professionals will be equipped to decide when and how to use the LESS test and adapt their programs for better, safer movement performance. Chapters: 00:00:05 What is the LESS test and why is it important for injury risk?00:01:43 How does the LESS assess lower extremity function for athletes and non-athletes? 00:03:12 Why is power training and assessment needed for all clients?00:05:18 How is the LESS test set up and what exactly does it measure?00:08:13 What are the preconditions for using the LESS safely and effectively? 00:09:05 Who developed and validated the LESS and what is its research foundation? 00:14:55 What is the difference between anticipated and unanticipated LESS testing? 00:16:30 How does the LESS test scoring system work and what do scores mean? 00:22:31 Why does unanticipated movement increase ACL injury risk according to the research? 00:26:38 How can trainers use LESS results to design better injury-prevention programs? 00:33:59 What practical strategies can I use to apply LESS research in my client sessions? 00:34:16 What types of unanticipated reactive training can reduce real-life injury risk? Show References: Hewett, T. E., Myer, G. D., Ford, K. R., Heidt, R. S., Jr, Colosimo, A. J., McLean, S. G., van den Bogert, A. J., Paterno, M. V., & Succop, P. (2005). Biomechanical measures of neuromuscular control and valgus loading of the knee predict anterior cruciate ligament injury risk in female athletes: a prospective study. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 33(4), 492–501. https://doi.org/10.1177/0363546504269591 Padua D.A, DiStefano L.J, Beutler A.I, de la Motte S.J, DiStefano M.J, Marshall S.W. (2015). The Landing error scoring system as a screening tool for an anterior cruciate ligament injury-prevention program in elite-youth soccer athletes. Journal of Athletic Training, 50(6), 589-595. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-50.1.10 Silvers-Granelli, H. J., Bizzini, M., Arundale, A., Mandelbaum, B. R., & Snyder-Mackler, L. (2017). Does the FIFA 11+ injury prevention program reduce the incidence of acl injury in male soccer players? Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 475(10), 2447-2455. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-017-5342-5 If you like what you just consumed, leave us a 5-star review, and share this episode with a friend to help grow our NASM health and wellness community! The content shared in this podcast is solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek out the guidance of your healthcare provider or other qualified professional. Any opinions expressed by guests and hosts are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASM. Introducing NASM One, the membership for trainers and coaches. For just $35/mo, get unlimited access to over 300 continuing education courses, 50% off additional certifications and specializations, EDGE Trainer Pro all-in-one coaching app to grow your business, unlimited exam attempts and select waived fees. Stay on top of your game and ahead of the curve as a fitness professional with NASM One. Click here to learn more. https://bit.ly/4ddsgrm
Andrea Samadi shares her personal resting heart rate data to show why measuring over time matters more than fixating on a single score. She explains how trends reveal stress, recovery, and adaptation, and why comparing yourself to your own baseline is the most useful approach. Learn practical steps to measure consistently, contextualize changes, experiment with one behavior, and use your physiological data to make intentional improvements in sleep, recovery, and performance. BONUS EPISODE 3: ON THIS EPISODE, WE'LL COVER ✔ What resting heart rate can reveal about stress, recovery, and adaptation over time ✔ The story hidden in my own data — from a high of 57 bpm in February to 53 bpm in August ✔ Why the six-month trend matters — and what my 2% lower average may be telling me ✔ How stress and training load can show up in your physiology before you consciously recognize it ✔ Why recovery and nervous-system regulation matter for building a more resilient baseline ✔ How to find your own RHR baseline instead of comparing yourself with someone else ✔ How to look for deviations and patterns across weeks and months—not individual days ✔ How to connect RHR with sleep, HRV, recovery, training, stress, and life events ✔ How to run your own personal experiment: change one variable, measure, and see what happens ✔ The bigger lesson: What gets measured over time can reveal a story you couldn't see day to day. Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we bridge neuroscience, social and emotional learning, and human performance so we can create measurable improvements in our well-being, achievement, leadership, productivity, and results. I'm Andrea Samadi, and if you've been following along through Season 16, you'll know that we've been building what I call The Brain's Operating System for Human Performance—a neuroscience-based framework designed to help us understand how the different systems of the brain and body work together to influence how we learn, adapt, connect, lead, and ultimately how we perform. We are currently in Phase 3 where we are covering Movement, Learning and Cognition. If you just finished Episode 405[i] with Dr. Kristen Holmes, you know we've been looking at recovery as an essential part of our Movement Loop. Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance → Greater Capacity. And Kristen's work has reinforced something I've learned after years of tracking my own physiology: What gets measured gets improved. But this week, I wanted to dive into my own personal data to show us something I think is easy to miss: Sometimes what gets measured over time reveals a story you simply couldn't see day to day. When we're looking at a wearable every morning, it's easy to become focused on today's number. Today's recovery score. Today's HRV. Today's resting heart rate. Was it higher? Was it lower? But one number—or even one week—rarely tells us very much about the direction we're actually moving. It's when we begin to zoom out that patterns emerge. And that's exactly what happened when I looked more closely at my resting heart rate this year. What initially looked like a collection of numbers began to tell a much bigger story about stress, recovery, consistency, and adaptation. So my hope for this episode isn't that you compare your resting heart rate to mine. Your numbers will be different. My hope is that this episode encourages you to become curious about your own data. Maybe you track sleep. Maybe it's HRV. Resting heart rate. Recovery. Exercise. Blood pressure. Steps. Or even something as simple as your energy, mood, or ability to focus. Take one metric and zoom out. Look at three months. Six months. Maybe even a year. And instead of asking, “Is today's number good or bad?” Ask a different question: “What is the trend that I'm seeing here, trying to tell me?” Is something improving? Is something slowly moving in the wrong direction? Does your physiology change during periods of higher stress? (like you will see mine did). Can you see what happens when you sleep more consistently, exercise differently, recover better, or change one habit? Because sometimes the most valuable insight isn't found in today's score. It's hidden in the pattern. And once you can see the pattern, you have information you can actually use. That's really the purpose of sharing my personal data with you today. Not to say, “Here's what worked for me, so you should do exactly the same thing.” But to show you what can happen when we become students of our own physiology. We measure. Find the tool that works best for you. We notice. Patterns…ups and downs. We experiment. We become intentional with our behaviors to change/improve the numbers. We adjust and try something new/different. And then we measure again. Because ultimately, what gets measured gets improved—but what gets measured over time can reveal the story that you tell you more than just a bunch of numbers. And sometimes that story shows us exactly where our next opportunity for change might be. And that's exactly what happened with my resting heart rate. Earlier this year, I watched my monthly average climb to 56...and then 57 beats per minute. You can see my data in the show notes. Sept and October were even, at 54, and then something happened in November that took my RHR up, and it kept climbing. I know what was happening in those months to cause the increase. And I went all out to protect my recovery. I worked on rest, hydration, extra exercise, and recovery sessions. Then it began coming down. in March 54 in April 53 The 56 in May isn't the most accurate representation of what was happening with my data, as we travelled internationally and there were 5 days my whoop didn't calculate my score correctly (something to do with the change in time zones) so I'm not going to say that I was stressed out during a relaxing vacation. But something happened that caught my attention. You can see it with the graphics in the show notes. My newest six-month WHOOP average dropped from 55 to 54 beats per minute—2% lower than the previous six months. This NEW result was highlighted in GREEN for me to notice the improvement. For the first time in this story, the baseline itself had moved. And that's what we're going to dive into today. Because this episode isn't really about whether 53 is a good resting heart rate. It's about something much more useful: Do you know your baseline with YOUR RHR—and do you know which direction it's moving? Even better, if you can forsee that it will be moving up, like I knew it was going to in January/February, do you have strategies in place to buffer the stress, and keep this number as close as you can to your baseline? Let's dive into this bonus episode. The Story Behind My Resting Heart Rate: Do You Know Yours? There's a number I've been watching for the past year. I watched it raise higher (when I'm stressed) and go lower when I'm doing all the right things to rest and recover. When I zoom out and look at this number over the past year, it tells a fascinating story about my fitness, recovery, stress, and the way my body is adapting. That number is my resting heart rate. And today I want to ask you: Do you know yours? Because one of the biggest lessons I've learned from nearly five years of tracking my physiology is something we've talked about throughout this podcast: What gets measured gets improved. But I think I need to add something to that. What gets measured over time reveals the story. And my newest data makes that clearer than ever. PART 1 — WHAT IS RESTING HEART RATE? Resting heart rate, or RHR, is simply the number of times your heart beats per minute while your body is at rest. Normal Ranges and Fitness[ii] Average adults: 60 to 100 bpm. Active adults: 55 to 85 bpm. Athletes: 40 to 60 bpm, because their heart muscle is strong and pumps blood with ease For adults, resting heart rate varies considerably between individuals. Fitness, genetics, age, sleep, stress, illness, medications, hydration, alcohol, temperature and training load can all influence it. So I'm not interested in comparing my resting heart rate with someone else's. I'm interested in comparing me with me. That's where wearable data becomes useful. Instead of asking: “Is 53 good?” I'm asking: “What is happening to my baseline over time?” And that distinction matters. PART 2 — MY RHR STORY BEGAN WITH A RISE When I first looked at this data, I focused on January and February. My monthly resting heart rate had climbed: January: 56 bpm. February: 57 bpm. Those numbers weren't alarming. I was experiencing higher levels of stress than usual at that time, and I was even prepared for the stress. But relative to my baseline, (55 bpm) the rise caught my attention. And that's an important distinction. A wearable isn't diagnosing why something happened. It can't look at 57 and tell me: “Andrea, this is stress.” But it can show me that something has changed. Then I can look at the rest of my life. How am I sleeping? How am I training? What's my stress level? Am I recovering? What has changed? That's when data becomes feedback. I was ready to implement some stress reduction strategies to get my RHR and nervous system back to its baseline. PART 3 — THEN THE PATTERN CHANGED After February, here's what happened: March: 54. April: 53. May: 56 (International Trip impacted this data) June: 53. July: 55. August: 53. And I love this part of the story because it wasn't a perfectly straight line. My RHR didn't simply go: 57...56...55...54...53. Real physiology rarely works like that. There were fluctuations. May went back to 56. July went to 55. But my resting heart rate kept returning to 53. April: 53. June: 53. August: 53. That's when I began wondering whether I was seeing something more meaningful than a few good months. And now I have another piece of evidence. PART 4 — THE NEW SIX-MONTH RESULT My newest WHOOP six-month report covers February 23 through August 21, 2026. And this is where the story gets interesting. My previous six-month average resting heart rate was: 55 bpm. My newest six-month average is: 54 bpm. WHOOP shows that as: 2% lower than the previous six months. One beat per minute doesn't sound dramatic. But I'm not looking for dramatic. I'm looking for adaptation. Something to show me that my body responded to the extra recovery that I was implementing to buffer the higher stress. For the first time in this particular story, the six-month average itself has moved down. And that means I'm no longer looking only at a few isolated low readings. The trend is beginning to move. PART 5 — THE AVERAGE WAS HIDING THE STORY This may be my favorite lesson from this entire experiment. Earlier, when I looked at a different six-month window, my average RHR was 55 bpm. And the previous six months? Also 55. If I had stopped there, I could have concluded: Nothing changed. But underneath that average was a changing pattern. My RHR had risen to 57 in February. This makes sense to me when I glance at the data. Then it repeatedly returned to 53 with my focus being on rest/recovery. And eventually the rolling six-month average moved from 55 to 54. This is why one measurement rarely tells the whole story. Trends matter. And sometimes your body is changing before the average catches up. PART 6 — 57 TO 53 There's another way to look at the data. February was my highest monthly average in this January–August period: 57 bpm. August is: 53 bpm. That's approximately 7% lower than that February high. I want to be careful with this number because I'm comparing two monthly endpoints—not two six-month averages. So I wouldn't call this a 7% improvement in my overall cardiovascular health. But it is another signal inside the larger pattern. What was happening in February? What is currently happening in August? And when multiple signals begin pointing in the same direction, (showing an improvement) I'm paying attention. PART 7 — WHAT CHANGED? This is where I think self-experimentation becomes powerful. I didn't respond to the higher numbers by simply exercising harder. I've spent this year becoming much more intentional about recovery and regulation. Sleep. Daily movement. Zone 2 work. Meditation. Hydration. Infrared sauna. Red-light therapy. Paying attention to training strain. And increasingly, listening to what my physiology is telling me instead of automatically pushing through fatigue. I've also been experimenting with removing alcohol at different times this year, and the changes I've seen in recovery, HRV, sleep stress and resting heart rate have given me another variable to continue watching. I can't take this dataset and say: “This one behavior caused my RHR to fall.” There are too many variables. But I can say: The environment surrounding my physiology changed—and my trend changed with it. That's worth paying attention to. PART 8 — WHY DOES A LOWER RHR MATTER? In many people, particularly when associated with aerobic fitness, a lower resting heart rate can reflect a heart that is able to pump blood efficiently with fewer beats at rest. Training can increase stroke volume—the amount of blood pumped with each heartbeat. That means the heart may not need to beat as frequently to deliver the same cardiac output at rest. Autonomic regulation also plays a role. The sympathetic nervous system helps mobilize us for action. The parasympathetic nervous system supports rest-and-recovery processes. Resting heart rate reflects influences from both, along with many other physiological factors. That's why I don't view RHR as a standalone score. I view it as one piece of my physiological dashboard. RHR. HRV. Sleep. Recovery. Training load. And, most importantly: How I actually feel. PART 9 — THIS CONNECTS DIRECTLY TO THE MOVEMENT LOOP Remember the Movement Loop we've been building in Phase 3: Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance → Greater Capacity. My RHR data brings us directly back to the part of the loop I don't want us to overlook: Recovery → Adaptation. Exercise provides the stimulus. But we don't become fitter during the stimulus itself. The body needs an opportunity to respond to that stimulus. To repair. To replenish. To adapt. And eventually, that adaptation may become visible in our trends. That's why recovery isn't the opposite of performance. Recovery is part of the process that makes performance possible. PART 10 — THE BIGGER LESSON This episode isn't really about whether your resting heart rate should be 53. Mine doesn't need to be yours. Your number might be completely different. The question is: Do you know your baseline? And more importantly: Do you know which direction it's moving? What increases it? What decreases it? Because your physiology is constantly responding to the way you're living. Training. Sleeping. Recovering. Working. Traveling. Eating. Drinking. Managing stress. And sometimes those changes are happening quietly beneath the surface. Until you measure them. PART 11 — HOW TO IMPLEMENT THIS IN YOUR OWN LIFE So now I want to turn this over to you. I've shown you my resting heart rate story. What's yours? And you don't need five years of WHOOP data to begin looking for it. You just need enough information to establish your baseline, and then you need to become curious about what causes that baseline to change. Here's how I would start. STEP 1 — FIND A WAY TO MEASURE YOUR RESTING HEART RATE CONSISTENTLY First, find the measurement tool that works for you. Maybe that's WHOOP. Maybe it's an Apple Watch, Garmin, Oura Ring, Fitbit, or another wearable. Or maybe you're tracking your resting heart rate another way. The specific device isn't the most important part of this experiment. You can even just count your pulse beats that you get in one minute while resting. Just stay consistent as you measure. If you're going to look for a trend, you want to compare measurements collected under reasonably consistent conditions. We're not trying to find the lowest number we can possibly produce. We're trying to understand our normal pattern. STEP 2 — LEARN YOUR BASELINE Next, don't start by asking: “Is my resting heart rate good?” Start with: “What is normal for me?” Look at your data over time. If you have it, look at your last month. Then three months. Six months. And eventually a year. What number—or range—does your RHR tend to return to? For me, I knew that my baseline was somewhere around the mid-50s. That's why 56 and 57 caught my attention. Those numbers weren't necessarily concerning when compared with somebody else's resting heart rate. Someone else I know has a RHR of 80 and that's in the normal range. The higher scores mattered to me, because they represented a change from my baseline. That's the first lesson: Compare yourself with yourself. STEP 3 — LOOK FOR THE DEVIATIONS Once you understand your baseline, look for the places where your data moves away from it. Don't immediately label the change as good or bad. Just become curious. When did your RHR rise? When did it fall? Was it one unusual night? Several days? Several weeks? Or did your monthly average actually begin to move? This is where we stop looking at individual dots and begin looking for a pattern. STEP 4 — PUT YOUR LIFE NEXT TO YOUR DATA Now comes the part that I think is the most interesting. Take the RHR graph and mentally place your life beside it. Ask yourself: What was happening here? Was work unusually stressful? Were you traveling? Were you sleeping less? Were you sick? Had your training load increased? Were you drinking more—or less—alcohol? Had you changed your exercise routine? Were you recovering differently? What was happening emotionally? What was happening physically? This was important in interpreting my own data. When I saw my RHR increase in January and February, I knew what was happening in my life during those months. And when I saw May increase, I also had context: I had been traveling internationally, and I knew there were issues with several days of my wearable data. Context changes interpretation. A graph can show you what changed. Your life can help you investigate why. STEP 5 — LOOK AT MORE THAN ONE METRIC Here's another important point. Don't interpret resting heart rate completely by itself. Put it next to other information. What was happening with your HRV? Your sleep? Your recovery? Your training load? Your energy? Your stress? And most importantly: How did you feel? One metric gives us a clue. Multiple signals moving together can give us a much richer picture. Think of it as your own physiological dashboard. You're looking for relationships between the signals rather than allowing one number to define whether you're doing well. STEP 6 — CHOOSE ONE VARIABLE TO EXPERIMENT WITH Now we move from observation to action. Ask: “What is one behavior I could change consistently and then watch what happens?” Maybe it's getting to bed earlier. Maybe it's improving hydration. Adding more Zone 2 exercise. Building recovery days into your training. Meditating. Walking. Changing your alcohol intake. Or simply protecting more downtime during a stressful period. Choose something that's meaningful and realistic for you. Then give it time. This is important because we're not trying to manipulate tomorrow morning's score. We're trying to see whether consistent behavior begins to influence a trend. STEP 7 — MEASURE AGAIN And now we come back to the beginning. Measure. Notice. Experiment. Adjust. And measure again. You might even keep a very simple note beside your data: What changed this month? You could write: Higher workload. Travel. Better sleep. Started Zone 2. Stopped drinking alcohol. Illness. Vacation. More recovery. Over time, you begin creating something much more useful than a collection of numbers. You're creating a map of how your body responds to your life. DISCOVER YOUR RHR STORY So here's the experiment I want to leave you with. Pull up your resting heart rate data. And ask yourself these five questions: What is my baseline? When does my RHR move above or below that baseline? What was happening in my life when it changed? What other physiological signals moved with it? What is one behavior I could intentionally change and measure over time? Then zoom out. Don't judge yourself by tomorrow morning. Look for the story. Because the goal isn't to achieve somebody else's resting heart rate. The goal is to understand your own physiology well enough to recognize when something changes. And then have strategies available to respond. That's where measurement becomes useful. It moves us from simply collecting information... to using information to make better decisions. REVIEW — WHAT DID WE LEARN? Before we close, let's pull everything together. We started with one simple metric: resting heart rate. We learned that RHR tells us how many times our heart beats per minute while we're at rest—but the number becomes much more useful when we stop comparing ourselves with other people and begin comparing ourselves with ourselves. Then we looked at my own story. My RHR rose to: 56 bpm in January. And then: 57 bpm in February. Because I understood what was happening in my life at the time, those increases gave me information I could use. Rather than simply pushing harder, I became increasingly intentional about recovery. Then the pattern began to change. My RHR repeatedly returned toward 53. And eventually something even more interesting happened. My newest six-month average moved from: 55 bpm → 54 bpm. WHOOP identified that as: 2% lower than my previous six-month average. One beat per minute. Not dramatic. But that's exactly the point. We're not looking for dramatic. We're looking for patterns. We're looking for evidence that the system may be adapting over time. And that's why my biggest lesson from this experiment isn't: “My resting heart rate is 53.” It's: “I understand my resting heart rate better than I did before.” I know my baseline. I know some of the circumstances that push it higher. I'm beginning to understand some of the behaviors associated with it moving lower. And most importantly, I know to keep watching the trend. CONCLUSION — BECOME A STUDENT OF YOUR OWN PHYSIOLOGY This brings us back to something Dr. Kristen Holmes reinforced in Episode 405: What gets measured gets improved. But after looking at this data, I want to expand that idea. What gets measured gives us information. What gets measured consistently reveals patterns. And what gets measured over time can reveal a story. That's the opportunity I hope you take away from this episode. Become curious about your own physiology. Not obsessed with it. Not controlled by a score. Curious. Learn your baseline. Notice when something changes. Put that change into the context of your life. Experiment thoughtfully. And then zoom back out and see what happened. Because ultimately, we're not collecting data just to collect more data. We're trying to turn: Data → Awareness → Action → Adaptation. And that brings us right back to our Movement Loop: Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance → Greater Capacity. Your resting heart rate is only one metric. But it gives us a perfect example of what adaptation can look like when we stop staring at today's number and start paying attention to the larger pattern. So sometime after listening to this episode, open your own data. Go back three months. Six months. A year if you can. And ask yourself: “What story has my body been trying to tell me?” You might be surprised by what you find. COMING NEXT — BONUS EPISODE 4 And there's one part of my own physiological dashboard that I deliberately haven't explored deeply today. Sleep. Because recovery doesn't end when we stop exercising. Some of the most important recovery processes happen while we're asleep. So before we return to Dr. John Medina and move deeper into attention, learning, and cognition, I want to stay with the recovery side of our Movement Loop for one more bonus episode. In Bonus Episode 4, we're going to investigate restorative sleep. What exactly is restorative sleep? How can we measure it? What can our sleep data tell us? And perhaps most importantly: How can we use that information to improve the way we recover, adapt, and perform? We'll apply the same approach we used today. Not just: “How did I sleep last night?” But: “What story is my sleep telling me over time?” Because movement creates the stimulus. Recovery creates the opportunity to adapt. And sleep may be one of the most important places where that recovery takes place. I'll see you next time for Bonus Episode 4: The Story Behind My Restorative Sleep. REFERENCES [i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 405 “Movement Isn't Enough: How Recovery Drives Adaptation” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-isnt-enough-how-recovery-drives-real-adaptation/ [ii] Health Direct “What is RHR?” https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/resting-heart-rate
Metabolic health is far more nuanced than conventional nutrition advice suggests. On this week's episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist Dr. Kristen Holmes sits down with Metabolic Health Expert Dr. Nick Norwitz MD PhD to discuss why curiosity is one of the most powerful tools for improving long-term health. Dr. Nick Norwitz shares how a ketogenic diet unexpectedly put his inflammatory bowel disease into remission after numerous conventional treatments had failed. This experimentation sparked a career dedicated to challenging assumptions with rigorous science and thoughtful self-experimentation. Together, Dr. Nick Norwitz and Dr. Kristen Holmes unpack the difference between "evidence-based" and truly individualized care. This episode continues to explore why muscle, sleep, and visceral fat play central roles in brain, heart, and metabolic health. From discussions on protein, the microbiome, and emerging therapies to Nick's famous Oreo-versus-statin experiment, the conversation encourages listeners to move beyond one-size-fits-all health advice, and partner with their healthcare providers to embrace safe, data-informed experimentation for a better understanding of their biology. Shownotes:(00:00) Trailer Intro(00:43) Who Is Dr. Nick Norwitz?(03:07) Nick's Personal Health Journey(08:29) Nutrition as a Medical Intervention(12:41) What Does “Evidence-Based” Care Really Mean?(16:42) The Key to Optimizing Your Health(19:17) Debunking Metabolic Health Myths(20:46) The Benefits of Training and Exercise(26:29) How Metabolism Affects Strength, Cardio, and Brain Health(30:03) How Does Sleep Impact Inflammation?(32:35) GLP-1s and Your Metabolism: What's Really Happening?(34:47) Nick's Take on Self-Experimentation(35:43) The Oreo vs. Statin Study(45:19) How to Burn Fat(49:43) Do We Really Need to Focus on Protein?(51:25) What Is Visceral Fat—and How Do You Lose It?(56:08) Why You Should Stay Curious About Your HealthResources:Fitness and aging (Nature Aging 2026); https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-026-01150-x Visceral fat and resistant starch: (Nature Metabolism 2024): https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-024-00988-y Visceral fat and resistant starch, **YouTube Breakdown: https://youtu.be/wnEApLnKDRI Visceral fat and brain volume: (Nature Comm 2026): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-71141-4 Leg power and longevity (twin study): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26551663/ 600-calorie exercise burn study (Nature Metabolism 2025): https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-025-01236-7 Microbiome and beige fat study (Nature 2026): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10205-3 Oreo versus statin study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38276308/Follow Nick Norwitz:WebsiteYouTubeInstagramXLinkedInSubstackSupport the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn
Send us Fan MailWhat if one of the most important things we assess in healthcare is also one of the things we measure least objectively?This week on Leave Your Mark, I sit down with Dr. Ryan Comeau, chiropractor, former NCAA Division I hockey goaltender, founder of Kinetisense, and creator of the NeuroPlanar Method.Ryan's journey begins in sport, where years in the crease taught him about grit, adaptability, and the difference between quitting and pivoting. Injuries eventually changed the direction of his athletic career. Still, they also led him toward healthcare and a question that would ultimately shape his professional life: Why are we still assessing human movement primarily with our eyes and tools that have existed for centuries?That question led Ryan to build Kinetisense, a clinical-grade 3D markerless motion-capture platform designed to give practitioners objective movement data while augmenting, rather than replacing, clinical expertise.Our conversation explores Ryan's evolution from athlete to clinician to entrepreneur; the challenges of bringing new technology into healthcare; the NeuroPlanar Method; planar plasticity; early sport specialization; and what three-dimensional movement data can reveal that our eyes may miss.We also get into something I find particularly interesting: how objective technology might help us validate, challenge, and ultimately sharpen the clinical observations experienced practitioners have developed over decades.A fascinating conversation about movement, measurement, entrepreneurship, and the willingness to keep asking better questions.EnjoyIf you liked this EP, please take the time to rate and comment, share with a friend, and connect with us on social channels IG @Kingopain, TW @BuiltbyScott, LI+FB Scott Livingston. You can find all things LYM at www.LYMLab.com, download your free Life Lab Starter Kit today and get busy living https://lymlab.com/free-lym-lab-starter/Please take the time to visit and connect with our sponsors, they are an essential part of our success:www.ReconditioningHQ.comwww.FreePainGuide.com
In this episode Andrea Samadi explores Phase 3 of the Brain's Operating System—movement, learning, and cognition—focusing on the recovery and adaptation side of the "movement loop." She revisits Dr. Kristen Holmes' insights on measuring strain, sleep, and recovery to show how movement provides the stimulus while recovery enables lasting adaptation and greater capacity. The episode offers practical steps: identify your stimulus, track recovery, find your weakest link, and use feedback to train smarter—not just harder—so measurement becomes a tool for meaningful change. IN EPISODE 405, WE WILL COVER: ✔ Why recovery is not the absence of work—it is where adaptation occurs → How recovery allows the brain and body to absorb stress and build greater capacity. ✔ Where Dr. Kristen Holmes fits into the Movement Loop → Movement creates the stimulus; recovery determines how effectively we adapt. ✔ Why measuring your data matters → What gets measured can be adjusted, repeated, and improved. ✔ How to identify your personal recovery patterns → Using sleep, HRV, resting heart rate, strain, stress, and daily behaviors to uncover what helps—or limits—your performance. ✔ Why your recovery formula is uniquely yours → The habits that improve one person's readiness may not produce the same results for someone else. ✔ How recovery helps create more predictable performance → When you understand your patterns, you can make better daily decisions instead of leaving your results to chance. ✔ How repeated behaviors become adaptation → Measure → Adjust → Repeat → Recover → Adapt → Build Capacity. ✔ Where the larger journey is taking us → A preview of The Journey of the Mind Workbook and its five-step process: Understand → Reflect → Apply → Measure → Become ✔ What comes next in the Movement Loop → A Bonus Episode applying recovery science to real-world data, followed by Dr. John Medina on how an activated brain turns experience into attention, learning, and lasting change. EP 405 — From Recovery to Adaptation: Revisiting Dr. Kristen Holmes in Phase 3 WELCOME BACK Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we bridge neuroscience, social and emotional learning, and human performance so we can create measurable improvements in our well-being, achievement, leadership, productivity, and results. I'm Andrea Samadi, and if you've been following along through Season 16, you'll know that we've been building what I call The Brain's Operating System for Human Performance—a neuroscience-based framework designed to help us understand how the different systems of the brain and body work together to influence how we learn, adapt, connect, lead, and perform. Our roadmap has five phases: Phase 1 — Regulation & Safety Where we built the foundation by asking: Is the nervous system regulated enough to learn and grow? Phase 2 — Neurochemistry & Motivation Where we explored the systems that drive us to act, persist, and pursue meaningful goals. And now, we are here—Phase 3: Movement, Learning & Cognition. This is where movement becomes the catalyst for learning, adaptation, and performance. The central idea of Phase 3 is that the brain does not change through information alone. It changes through experience. Through movement. Through challenge. Through recovery. And through the repeated process of adapting to what we ask our brain and body to do. I called the framework we are building in this phase: The Movement Loop: Movement (the stimulus) → Brain Activation (the brain responds) → Attention (the brain becomes engaged and ready to learn) → Learning (new information and experience begin changing neural pathways) → Recovery (the brain consolidates and restores) → Adaptation (the brain and body adjust to the repeated challenge) → Performance (the adaptation shows up in what we can do) → Greater Capacity (we become capable of more) Movement is the stimulus. Brain activation is the response. Attention opens the door to learning. Learning creates change. Recovery helps that change stick. Adaptation builds the system. Performance reveals the result. Greater capacity is what we gain. And then we repeat the cycle. In our last episode, EP 404, we revisited the groundbreaking work of Dr. John Ratey, who helped us understand the front end of this loop. Dr. Ratey showed us that: Movement changes the brain. Exercise activates the brain. It supports attention. It prepares us for learning. And it creates the biological conditions that allow the brain to change. But that leaves us with an important question. What happens after we create the stimulus? Because movement alone isn't enough. Training alone isn't enough. And more strain does not automatically equal more improvement. At some point, the brain and body have to recover from what we've asked them to do And that's where today's episode begins with the back end of the movement loop. WHERE THIS JOURNEY IS GOING Before we move into today's episode, I want to zoom out for a moment and share where I believe this entire journey is taking us. Because as we've been building The Brain's Operating System for Human Performance—making sense of the interviews we've gathered over the past seven years and organizing them into five phases we can all understand and apply—I realized we are doing something much bigger than simply reviewing past episodes. I had to stop for a moment and look at what we've built so far. And that's when something became clear: We are mapping a journey. We aren't finished yet—we are only in Phase 3—but as we continue into Phases 4 and 5, I think you'll begin to see the bigger picture. This is about more than learning how the brain works or connecting social and emotional learning skills to our daily lives. It's about asking: What will we actually do with everything we've learned once we've traveled through all five phases? That's what led me to what I'm calling The Journey of the Mind. We could just as easily call it The Journey of the Brain because we now understand how deeply connected the mind and brain are.[i] But for me, Journey of the Mind has a much older meaning. That phrase takes me all the way back to the late 1990s, when I had the opportunity to watch an unpublished video program with that title, created by my mentor, Bob Proctor. I had no idea where that experience would lead me. But it planted a seed. It encouraged me to stop looking outside of myself for every answer... and to begin looking inward. To become curious about my thoughts. My beliefs. My habits. My potential. And ultimately, the relationship between what happens inside of us and the results we create outside of us. That idea influenced my early writing and eventually became part of the path that led me here. And now, all these years later, I can see that the podcast has evolved into its own Journey of the Mind. Only now, we have neuroscience to help us understand what is happening along the way. We have hundreds of experts. Years of research. Stories. Experiments. Data. And our own lived experience. The five phases give us a way to bring all of that together. We began with Regulation and Safety, because before we can grow, the nervous system needs a stable foundation. Then we moved into Neurochemistry and Motivation, where we explored what drives our behavior. Now, in Phase 3, we are looking at Movement, Learning and Cognition—how experience changes the brain and how recovery and adaptation help us build greater capacity. Next, we'll move into Connection, Emotion and Social Intelligence, because none of us develops in isolation. And finally, we'll reach Integration, Meaning and Human Performance, where these systems begin to come together. And when we reach the end of Phase 5, I want to bring the entire journey into something practical. THE JOURNEY OF THE MIND WORKBOOK I'm currently developing a companion workbook for these five phases. The Journey of the Mind Workbook will help us take what we've learned and apply it to our own lives through a simple process: Understand. Reflect. Apply. Measure. Become. Understand the science. Reflect on our own patterns. Apply what we are learning. Measure what changes. And then ask the bigger question: Who are we becoming? Because the goal isn't simply to know more about neuroscience. It's to use what we know. To identify our gaps. Recognize what is working. Build a clearer understanding of how we learn, recover, connect, perform, and grow. And become more intentional about the future we are creating. The workbook is still taking shape, but it's coming. And my hope is that when we reach the end of these five phases, we won't just have more information. We'll have a map. A clearer understanding of our brain. A deeper understanding of ourselves. A way to measure our growth. And a framework for becoming who we are capable of being. Now, let's return to where we are today... Phase 3: Movement, Learning and Cognition. Before we go further, I want to give you a quick roadmap for today's episode. We're going to explore Kristen Holmes' work through 15 short parts, each one helping us move step-by-step through the recovery and adaptation side of the Movement Loop. (The left side of the loop). We'll begin by clarifying the difference between readiness and adaptation. Then we'll look at the stimulus–recovery–adaptation cycle, revisit Kristen's original idea that what gets measured gets improved, and connect that to what I've learned from tracking my own data over the past five years. From there, we'll explore the difference between training harder and training smarter, why movement is information, why the goal is not maximum strain, and how these same principles apply to learning and performance far beyond exercise. We'll also return to one of my favorite ideas from Kristen's original interview: Your competitive advantage is often built in your downtime. And finally, we'll bring everything back to the Movement Loop and ask the question that really matters: Is what I'm doing building more strain—or building greater capacity? So think of these 10 parts as a guided walk through the second half of the loop... from recovery... to adaptation... to performance... and ultimately to greater capacity. PART 1 — WHY ARE WE RETURNING TO DR. KRISTEN HOLMES? When we first interviewed Dr. Kristen Holmes in 2021 for EP 134[ii], she was Vice President of Performance Science at WHOOP. At the time, I had recently turned 50. I purchased WHOOP because I wanted to improve what I knew was my weakest link: sleep. And in that original conversation, Dr. Holmes introduced ideas that I've now carried with me for more than five years. One of them was this: “What gets measured gets improved.” Another was the idea that what we do in our downtime may actually give us our greatest competitive advantage. At the time, I understood this at one level. Sleep matters. Recovery matters. Strain matters. Your habits outside of the workout matter. But after five years of looking at my own data, I understand her message differently. And I think this is one of the most important things about revisiting experts over time. We hear something at one stage of our development... and then years later, we hear the same idea again with an entirely different level of understanding. We revisited this same 2021 interview earlier in this season during Phase 1: Regulation & Safety on EP 390.[iii] So why are we covering this topic again? Because I realized that Dr. Holmes' work sits at a critical intersection inside our Brain's Operating System. In Phase 1, her work helped us understand regulation and readiness. Her message was: Can your system handle what you are asking it to do today? But in Phase 3, the question changes. Now we're asking: Is what I'm doing today actually helping my system adapt? That's very different. In Phase 1, recovery helped us understand whether the system was ready. In Phase 3, recovery helps us understand whether the system is changing. And that's why we're returning to Dr. Kristen Holmes. Not to repeat what we learned. But to take it one level deeper. Just a note here: while I've been using WHOOP to measure my movement, sleep, strain, and recovery, WHOOP is only one tool. There are many other ways to track these patterns—from other wearable devices and apps to simple measures like sleep duration, resting heart rate, exercise intensity, energy levels, and how recovered you feel. The important point isn't the device you use. It's learning to pay attention to your own patterns and using that feedback to make better decisions. PART 2 — READINESS VS. ADAPTATION Now let's return to the Movement Loop we opened this episode with: Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance → Greater Capacity In our last episode, Dr. John Ratey helped us understand the front end of this loop—how movement activates the brain, supports attention, and creates the conditions for learning. Today, Dr. Kristen Holmes helps us move into the recovery and adaptation side of the loop—what happens after we create the stimulus. This is where we ask a different kind of question. In Phase 1, we looked at Kristen's work through the lens of readiness: What is my capacity today? How much strain can I tolerate? How well did I sleep? What does my HRV tell me? How recovered am I? Do I have the capacity to push? Or would backing off today serve me better? That was the Phase 1 question: Am I ready? But now, in Phase 3, we move one step further around the loop. Now we are asking: Am I adapting? Is the movement I'm doing helping me become stronger? More resilient? More efficient? Better able to recover? More capable than I was before? That is the shift from readiness to adaptation. And this is where Dr. Kristen Holmes' work becomes essential to Phase 3. Because movement may provide the stimulus... but recovery is what gives the brain and body the opportunity to respond to that stimulus, adapt, and ultimately build greater capacity. Or would backing off today serve me better? That was our Phase 1 lens. And it was foundational. Because if the nervous system is depleted, overstressed, or under-recovered, everything downstream is affected. But Phase 3 takes us another step forward. Now we are not only asking: Am I ready? We are asking: Am I adapting? ADAPTATION asks: What is changing because of what I repeatedly do? Am I becoming stronger? More resilient? More efficient? Better able to tolerate stress? Better able to recover? More capable than I was before? And this is where I think recovery is frequently misunderstood. Recovery isn't simply what happens when we stop working. Recovery is not the opposite of performance. Recovery is part of the process that creates future performance. That distinction changes everything. Because the goal is not simply to recover enough to get through today. The goal is to recover in a way that allows the brain and body to become better prepared for tomorrow. So I want to give you one sentence to keep in mind throughout this entire episode: Movement provides the stimulus. Recovery allows the adaptation. That's where Kristen Holmes' work enters Phase 3. Dr. Ratey helped us understand why movement activates the brain and creates the stimulus for change. Dr. Holmes helps us to understand what has to happen afterward if that stimulus is going to become something useful. Something the body can integrate. Something the brain can learn from. Something that eventually becomes greater capacity. PART 3 — THE STIMULUS–RECOVERY–ADAPTATION CYCLE Think about exercise for a moment. When you challenge your body, you create stress. That's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, some level of challenge is exactly what we need. It's called hormesis, right? The challenge is the signal. It tells the system: Something is being asked of me. But the signal alone isn't what we are looking for. What matters is what your body does afterward. You place a demand on the system. Then the body needs time and resources to respond to that demand. We can think of it very simply: STIMULUS → RECOVERY → ADAPTATION → GREATER CAPACITY The stimulus is the challenge. Recovery is the response period. Adaptation is the change. And greater capacity is the result. The purpose of training isn't simply to create more strain. (Which is what I did for years). The purpose is to create a strain that your system can successfully recover from and adapt to. And that idea changed the way I began looking at my own movement. For years, I thought: Harder must be better. Longer must be better. More must be better. If I could hike for three hours, that had to be better than walking for one. If I could push harder, I assumed I would get better results. If I felt exhausted after a workout, I often assumed that meant I had accomplished more. But the data started showing me something different. Sometimes more strain simply created... more strain. And if I wasn't sleeping enough...(because I was repeating the same thing without enough rest) if I wasn't recovering... if I was stacking high strain on top of stress... then I wasn't necessarily building greater capacity. I could actually be interrupting the very adaptation I was trying to create. This is why one of the most important questions in Phase 3 becomes: How much challenge can my system absorb, recover from, and adapt to? Not: How much can I force myself to do? And this takes us directly back to the lesson Kristen Holmes gave us five years ago. Because if we want to know whether the stimulus we're creating is actually working... we need feedback. We need to see the patterns. We need to understand the relationship between what we do and how our system responds. Which brings us to Part 4: PART 4 — WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS IMPROVED In our Phase 1 episode with Dr. Holmes, I shared something that has become very important to me over the past five years. Once you begin measuring your sleep, your recovery, your strain, and your habits... you stop guessing. And when you stop guessing, patterns begin to emerge. For me, some of those patterns took years to understand. I began seeing that: Too much strain + not enough sleep = poor recovery. Over and over again. I knew intuitively that I was pushing too hard. But knowing something and changing behavior are two very different things. The data eventually forced me to look at the pattern honestly. There were times when I was training hard... waking early... cutting sleep short... and then wondering why my recovery didn't improve. I was giving my system a stimulus. But I wasn't giving it enough opportunity to adapt. That distinction matters. Because the goal is not simply: How much can I do? The better question is: How much can I do, recover from, and adapt to? That is a completely different way of approaching human performance. PART 5 — MY UNDERSTANDING OF RECOVERY HAS CHANGED When I first bought WHOOP in 2021, my weakest link was sleep. I knew I needed to improve it. And I did. Not perfectly. But significantly. What I find interesting now is that as one weakness improves, another one becomes easier to see. That's the value of measurement. Your weakest link can change. In 2021, mine was sleep. Today, I can see other areas much more clearly. Strength training is one. Balancing different kinds of movement is another. And this is where I began looking beyond total exercise time. Instead, I started asking: How much time am I spending in lower intensity movement? How much time am I spending at higher intensity? What happens to my recovery when I increase strain? How much sleep do I need after harder training? How quickly do I recover? What habits seem to help me recover faster? What habits tank my recovery? That's a completely different mindset than: Did I work hard today? PART 6 — TRAIN HARDER VS. TRAIN SMARTER One of the biggest lessons I pulled from Kristen Holmes' work was the difference between training harder and training smarter. In our Phase 1 review, I shared one example that really challenged my assumptions. I went on a walk along the canal near my house. Nothing extreme. I was walking my dogs and wearing a weighted vest. And during this much more moderate activity, I was able to reach Zones 4 and 5 for short periods. That surprised me, because those higher-intensity zones could sometimes be difficult for me to reach even during much longer hikes. I noticed the same thing when I started comparing different trails here in Arizona. When I first moved to AZ, Camelback Mountain—especially the Echo Canyon Trail—was my go-to hike. I used to hike it after work and again on the weekends. It was short, steep, and intense—about a 2.5-mile round trip on Echo Canyon, with the Cholla side a bit longer. So when I later moved to another part of the Valley and started hiking Telegraph Pass at South Mountain, I initially thought: This isn't going to give me the same workout. Telegraph Pass felt less intense. It didn't have that same steep, all-out challenge I was used to on Camelback. But once I started measuring my hikes, or learning new trails that were longer, I saw something I didn't expect. The longer, lower-intensity hikes were sometimes producing more overall strain than the shorter, harder hikes. That honestly shocked me. Because I had always assumed that if something felt harder, it must be giving me better results. But the data showed me that wasn't always true. A longer period of sustained effort—even at a lower intensity—could place a greater total load on my system than a shorter burst of very difficult exercise. And that taught me something important: How hard something feels in the moment is not always the same thing as the total load it places on your body. That was one of the moments when measurement changed the way I thought about exercise. I stopped asking only: How hard did that feel? And started asking: How did my body actually respond? And this is where data becomes useful. Not because the number knows everything. But because the number can reveal something we might otherwise miss. It can become feedback. And feedback helps us learn. PART 7 — MOVEMENT IS INFORMATION Movement is not just calories burned. I hardly ever think about calories anymore. There was a time when I could tell you almost exactly how much effort it took to burn off certain foods. But I think about movement very differently today. Movement is not punishment for what we ate. Movement is not simply exercise. Movement is information. Every time we move, we send signals to the brain and body about the demands being placed on the system. How much strength do I need? How much endurance? How much balance, coordination, speed, or cardiovascular capacity? And when we repeatedly expose ourselves to manageable challenge, the system begins to learn from those signals. It responds. It adjusts. And, with adequate recovery, it adapts. So movement isn't just something we do to burn energy. Movement is one of the ways we teach the brain and body what we want them to become capable of doing. PART 8 — THE GOAL IS NOT MAXIMUM STRAIN This brings me to what may be the biggest takeaway from today's episode. The goal is not maximum strain. The goal is the right amount of strain for your current capacity. Because too little challenge may not create enough stimulus. But too much challenge without adequate recovery can work against the very adaptation we're trying to create. And this is where Kristen Holmes' message about strain and recovery becomes so powerful. In Phase 1, we used recovery to ask: Should I push today? In Phase 3, we can use recovery to ask: Is my current training producing the adaptation I want? That is a much bigger question. And it applies far beyond exercise. PART 9 — THE SAME PRINCIPLE APPLIES TO LEARNING Think about learning. We don't learn best by forcing information into the brain endlessly without rest. We need exposure. Attention. Practice. Then space. Sleep. Recovery. Integration. And then we return to the material again. Spaced Repetition. The brain changes through repeated cycles of challenge and recovery. So while we're talking today about Kristen Holmes, recovery, movement, and strain... the same architecture appears in learning. It appears in work. It appears in leadership. It appears in stress management. It appears almost anywhere humans are trying to grow. Challenge alone doesn't guarantee growth. Challenge + recovery + repetition creates the conditions for adaptation. PART 10 — YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IS STILL BUILT IN YOUR DOWNTIME One of my favorite ideas from my original conversation with Kristen was something we revisited in Phase 1. Listen to Dr. Holmes' CLIP here. She talked about the importance of what we do in our downtime. That what happens outside of the performance itself may give us our competitive advantage. Five years later, I think I finally understand how deep that idea goes. Your workout may last an hour. Your hike may last two hours. Your presentation may last 45 minutes. Your game may last an afternoon. But adaptation is happening across the rest of the day. What are you doing with the other hours? Are you sleeping? Hydrating? Fueling? Managing stress? Allowing the nervous system to come back down? Giving the body what it needs to repair? That downtime isn't empty time. It's part of the training. PART 11 — RECOVERY IS AN ACTIVE PROCESS This is another mindset shift that helped me. I used to think of recovery as: Doing nothing. Resting. Taking a day off. But recovery can actually be very intentional. For me, over the past several years, that has included things like: prioritizing sleep hydration meditation breathing spending time outside lower-intensity movement infrared sauna red light therapy And again, the point isn't that everyone should copy my routine. The important question is: What actually helps your system recover? That takes us back to one of the central ideas of our recent Bonus Episodes. PART 12 — FIND YOUR GAP In Bonus Episode 2[iv], we introduced the idea of finding your gap. Instead of copying someone else's recipe for high performance, identify the variable that is currently limiting you. Maybe your gap is sleep. Maybe it's hydration. Maybe it's high stress. Maybe it's too much intensity. Maybe it's not enough movement. Maybe it's inconsistent recovery habits. Maybe it's strength. The point is that your gap is personal. And it can change. This is one of the most useful things measurement can give us. It can show us: Where is the breakdown in my loop? Let's return to the Movement Loop. Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance → Greater Capacity Where is your gap? Are you not moving enough? Are you moving but not recovering? Are you recovering but not challenging yourself enough to create adaptation? Are you pushing constantly without allowing your system to consolidate the gains? If you can locate your gap, you know where to begin. PART 13 — THE MOVEMENT LOOP THROUGH DR. KRISTEN HOLMES Let's walk through the entire loop now through the lens of Dr. Ratey and Dr. Holmes' work. MOVEMENT We create a stimulus. We challenge the brain and body. BRAIN ACTIVATION Movement changes our physiological and neurological state. This is where Dr. Ratey's work helps us understand why movement prepares the brain. ATTENTION An activated brain is better positioned to engage. LEARNING The brain receives information and experience. But learning isn't finished simply because we experienced something. RECOVERY Now the system needs space. This is where Kristen Holmes enters the loop. How well did we sleep? How much stress are we carrying? What was our total strain? How prepared is the system to absorb what we've done? ADAPTATION This is where the system changes. Over time, repeated cycles of challenge and recovery create new capacity. PERFORMANCE We begin to see the result. We move differently. Think differently. Learn more efficiently. Handle greater demands. Recover faster. GREATER CAPACITY And this is what makes the loop a loop. Because now tomorrow's starting point may be different from yesterday's. The system has adapted. So we can begin again. The WHOOP wearable device may have started with elite athletes, but optimizing performance isn't only for elite athletes. Any of us can measure our patterns, learn from the feedback, and use that information to build greater capacity. PART 14 — THIS CHANGES HOW I THINK ABOUT PERFORMANCE For most of my life, I thought performance was primarily about effort. Work harder. Try harder. Push harder. And effort still matters. But effort without adaptation can become a dead end. What I'm learning through this phase is that performance is much more dynamic. You need the stimulus. You need the challenge. You need the work. But you also need recovery. Because recovery is what allows the system to absorb the work. And that leads me to an important sentence I want us to remember: The goal isn't to prove how much stress you can tolerate. The goal is to become capable of more over time. That's adaptation. PART 15 — FIVE YEARS LATER, DR. HOLMES' MESSAGE MEANS SOMETHING DIFFERENT When we first interviewed Kristen Holmes in 2021, the idea that what gets measured gets improved resonated with me immediately. That idea is partly why I bought a wearable device in the first place. I wanted data. I wanted answers. I wanted to improve sleep. But five years later, I think the lesson is bigger than measurement. Measurement itself isn't the goal. The goal is feedback. And feedback only becomes useful when we do something with it. Measure. Write it down somewhere. Observe what's happening month to month and year to year. Adjust. Recover. Adapt. Repeat. Measurement closes the learning/performance loop. That's why Dr. Holmes' work was worth revisiting here in Phase 3. Not simply because she studies recovery. But because measurement gives us information about whether the behaviors we repeat are actually creating the changes we want. PRACTICAL APPLICATION — HOW TO USE THIS THIS WEEK So let's make this practical. You do not need WHOOP. You do not need a wearable. You don't need complicated equipment. You simply need to start paying attention. Identify your current stimulus. What are you asking your body and brain to adapt to right now? Maybe it's: exercise strength training a new learning goal a demanding work schedule stress adapting to intensive heat in your new sauna Know what you're asking the system to do. Identify your recovery. Ask: How am I sleeping? How am I managing stress? Am I giving myself enough downtime? How do I feel the day after harder efforts? What patterns do I notice? Watch the relationship between effort and recovery. Does more effort always give you better results? Or is there a point where more becomes counterproductive? Find your gap. What is your weakest link right now? Don't try to fix everything. Start there. Look for evidence of adaptation. Ask yourself: Am I becoming more capable? Can I handle something today that used to be difficult? Am I recovering faster? Am I stronger? More focused? More resilient? If the answer is yes, your loop is working. REVIEW AND CONCLUSION To review and conclude this week's episode 405, let's bring this episode together. We brought Dr. Kristen Holmes back into our roadmap intentionally. In Phase 1: Regulation and Safety, Dr. Holmes helped us understand recovery as readiness. Sleep. HRV. Strain. Stress. Recovery. The question was: Is the system prepared for today? Today, in Phase 3: Movement, Learning and Cognition, we've looked at those same ideas through a different lens. Now the question is: Is the system adapting for tomorrow? That's the progression. Dr. John Ratey helped us understand that movement provides the brain with a powerful stimulus. Kristen Holmes helps us understand that the story doesn't end with the stimulus. We need recovery. Because: Movement provides the stimulus. Recovery allows the adaptation. Adaptation improves performance. Performance builds greater capacity. And then the loop begins again. ONE QUESTION TO TAKE WITH YOU Before you move on with your day, I want you to ask yourself one question: Am I creating more strain…or am I creating more capacity? They are not the same thing. You can push harder without improving. You can work longer without adapting. You can accumulate strain without building capacity. The goal is not simply to do more. The goal is to create a system where you can become more. FINAL TAKEAWAY And this brings us right back to Kristen Holmes's message from 2021: What gets measured gets improved. But today, I would add something to it: What gets measured can be adjusted. What gets adjusted can be repeated (in this new way) And what gets repeated—paired with the right amount of recovery—can become adaptation. That is how capacity grows. And that is where Kristen Holmes fits into Phase 3—not simply as an expert on recovery, but as a critical part of the science of change. And this idea—turning what we measure into meaningful change—is also shaping the larger vision for this podcast. At the start of this episode, we mentioned I'm developing a companion workbook called Journey of the Mind—a practical guide designed to help us move beyond simply listening to these ideas and begin applying them in our own lives. The workbook will guide us through five steps to apply what we have covered on this podcast. Understand. Reflect. Apply. Measure. Become More. With each episode we've covered. And this workbook began with an unexpected spark of inspiration. So, I want to offer one quiet acknowledgment: To the person who quietly helped illuminate this path for me—thank you. Sometimes, the people who influence the direction of our lives may never fully realize what their presence helped awaken. My vision from that the spark of inspiration I received will travel through this work and reach you listening—inspiring you to move forward on your own path and create a life that is more intentional, meaningful, and fulfilling than the one you knew before. Because inspiration doesn't end with the person who first awakens it. It moves through us. And when we act on it, one spark can grow into something that serves many others—far beyond what either person could have created individually. We'll explore the transformative power of human connection more deeply in Phase 4. Then, in Phase 5, we'll examine how connection, meaning, and contribution can become something that continues growing beyond us. But until then, we'll continue building this journey—one insight, one application, and one measurable change at a time. COMING NEXT Before we move on to Dr. John Medina and the next part of the Movement Loop, we'll cover our next Bonus Episode and show you what adaptation can actually look like in real life. In Bonus EP 3, I'm going to take you inside one of the clearest changes I've seen in my own data over the past several years: my resting heart rate. We'll look at where it started, how it changed, what may have contributed to that change, and why resting heart rate can become a useful window into how the body is adapting over time. Because this is really what Phase 3 is about. Not simply moving more. Not simply collecting data. But asking: Is what I'm doing actually changing my capacity? Then, for EP 406 we'll return to the research of Dr. John Medina and explore the next critical link in the Movement Loop: Attention. Because movement can activate the brain—but activation alone doesn't guarantee learning. The brain must first notice what matters. It must direct its attention. Hold that attention long enough to encode new information. And return to that information if it is going to become something we can remember and use. Dr. Ratey helped us understand how movement prepares the brain. Dr. Kristen Holmes helped us understand how recovery allows the brain and body to adapt. And Dr. Medina will help us understand what happens between those two points: How does an activated brain turn experience into learning? Because movement may open the door— but attention determines what enters and stays behind that door. And we'll reinforce one of the central ideas of this journey: What we repeatedly do shapes who we become. The question is: Are those repeated actions expanding our capacity and moving us toward our highest level of performance—or quietly holding us back? That's where we'll turn next as we continue building the Movement Loop. I'll see you next time. EP 405 — KEY TAKEAWAYS ✔ Why Kristen Holmes belongs in both Phase 1 and Phase 3 ✔ The difference between recovery for readiness and recovery for adaptation ✔ Why movement alone does not create improvement ✔ The relationship between stimulus → recovery → adaptation → greater capacity ✔ Why the goal is not maximum strain, but the right dose of strain ✔ How recovery completes the Movement Loop ✔ Why your weakest link can change as you improve ✔ How measurement provides feedback for better decisions ✔ Why downtime is part of the performance process ✔ The difference between accumulating strain and building capacity THE MOVEMENT LOOP Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance → Greater Capacity → Repeat Remember: Movement provides the stimulus. Recovery allows the adaptation. The goal isn't maximum strain. The goal is greater capacity. RESOURCES: Watch the full interview from 2021 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOgivjYhhW8 CLIP 1 Dr. Kristen Holmes https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Lg7FiWJKZc4 Phase 1: Regulation & Safety The Foundation Core Question: Is the nervous system safe enough to learn? Everything begins with regulation. Before we can focus, learn, lead, or perform, the brain first asks one fundamental question: Am I safe? Throughout Phase 1, our guests showed us that regulation isn't simply about reducing stress—it's about creating the biological conditions that allow the brain to learn, adapt, and thrive. Together we explored: Baland Jalal – how sleep, curiosity, imagination, and creativity prepare the brain for learning. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/hypnagogic-genius-capture-your-best-ideas-at-the-edge-of-sleep/ Dr. Bruce Perry – why regulation, rhythm, and relationships form the foundation of every healthy nervous system. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/safety-first-why-a-regulated-brain-is-the-key-to-learning/ Dr. Sui Wong – how lifestyle medicine and autonomic balance build lifelong brain resilience. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/your-eyes-the-brain-s-early-warning-system/ Rohan Dixit – how heart rate variability gives us real-time feedback on our ability to regulate stress. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/breathe-to-reset-how-hrv-tech-reveals-hidden-stress/ Dr. Kristen Holmes – how recovery metrics reveal our physiological readiness to perform. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/ Dr. Antonio Zadra – how sleep and dreaming consolidate memories, regulate emotions, and generate insight. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/when-brains-dream-how-sleep-integrates-emotion-insight-and-creativity/ Together these conversations taught us that sleep and stress regulation aren't optional—they're the operating system that allows every higher brain function to work. Phase 2: Motivation & Neurochemistry The Direction Core Question: What moves us into action? Once the brain feels safe, it becomes ready to pursue goals. In Phase 2, we explored the internal chemistry that transforms intention into action. Our experts helped us understand that sustainable motivation isn't about willpower—it's about aligning our beliefs, thoughts, attention, energy, and movement. Together we discovered: Bob Proctor — our beliefs determine the direction of our lives. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/belief-first-the-neuroscience-of-motivation/ Dr. Carolyn Leaf — our thinking literally changes our brain chemistry. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/thoughts-as-biology-how-your-mind-shapes-neurochemistry/ Dr. John Medina — attention determines what the brain encodes and remembers. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/theory-of-mind-the-missing-link-between-attention-reward-and-motivation Dr. Anna Lembke- Dopamine, Motivation and Why the Brain Repeats Behavior https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dopamine-nation-the-pleasure%e2%80%93pain-balance-that-drives-motivation/ Dr. Friederike Fabritius — managing our energy allows high performance to become sustainable. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/fun-fear-focus-closing-the-motivation-loop/ Dr. Chuck Hillman & Paul Zientarski — movement activates the brain, preparing it to learn. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/move-to-learn-how-movement-activates-the-brain-and-fuels-motivation/ By the end of Phase 2, we introduced what became The Motivation Loop, showing how beliefs influence thoughts, thoughts influence actions, actions create results, and results reinforce future beliefs. Phase 3: Movement, Learning & Human Performance The Transformation Core Question: How does movement change the brain—and how does recovery transform that change into performance? Now we're taking the next step. Phase 3 builds on everything we've learned so far. If Phase 1 created a regulated nervous system... If Phase 2 created motivation and direction... Phase 3 explains how the brain and body actually become stronger. Together we've explored this process through conversations with: Dr. Chuck Hillman & Paul Zientarski — why movement activates the brain before learning. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-first-how-a-20%e2%80%91minute-walk-lights-up-the-brain/ Dr. John Ratey — how exercise builds a healthier, younger brain. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-matters-how-every-move-rewires-the-brain/ Dr. Kristen Holmes — why recovery determines adaptation and readiness. Dr. John Medina — how attention transforms movement into lasting learning. Jason Whitrock — how metabolism and cellular energy fuel long-term performance. WHERE WE ARE GOING NEXT Phase 4 — Connection, Emotion & Social Intelligence The Human System Core Question: How do we thrive with other people? The brain didn't evolve in isolation—it evolved through relationships. In Phase 4, we'll explore emotional intelligence, empathy, communication, trust, leadership, and psychological safety to understand how our relationships shape learning, well-being, and performance. Phase 5 — Integration & Human Performance The Complete System Core Question: How do all the systems work together? In our final phase, we'll bring everything together—regulation, motivation, movement, emotion, relationships, learning, and recovery—into one integrated framework. We'll discover how these systems work together to create measurable improvements in our well-being, achievement, leadership, productivity, and results. REFERENCES: [i] A Neurologist Looks at Mind and Brain, published October 1, 2003, by Phirose Hansotia. [ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 134 with Dr. Kristen Holmes “Unlocking a Better You: Measuring Sleep, Recovery and Strain.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/ [iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 390 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/what-gets-measured-gets-improved-sleep-recovery-peak-performance/ [iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EP 2 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/find-the-gap-how-recovery-unlocks-predictable-performance
We're creating space for the brains behind the brands we love, and asking good questions along the way. The result is a deep dive into the how and why of brand-building, from blueprints to launch day, customers as community and the detours in between. big lessons, easy listening. In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Nico Varano, CEO of SweatHouz, the contrast therapy franchise redefining recovery through private sauna, cold plunge, and vitamin C shower experiences. Nico's path to CEO wasn't conventional. After starting his career in finance and private equity, he discovered SweatHouz while training for a charity boxing match and became the brand's first franchisee. After rapidly scaling his own studios, he was tapped to lead the company as CEO. Today, SweatHouz operates more than 100 locations across 25 states and has become one of the fastest-growing wellness franchises in the country. Nico shares lessons on franchising, customer retention, operational excellence, hospitality, and why the future of recovery isn't about flashy experiences, it's about building habits people return to week after week. Tune in for an inside look at scaling a category-defining wellness brand while balancing leadership, fatherhood, and the pursuit of sustainable growth! Chapters: 00:00 — Meet Nico Varano Nico shares his background in finance, private equity, and his family's restaurant business. 02:00 — Discovering SweatHouz How training for a charity boxing match led Nico to contrast therapy and ultimately franchise ownership. 03:36 — Becoming the First Franchisee Acquiring and growing the Assembly Row location in Boston. 04:28 — The SweatHouz Business Model Memberships, private suites, margins, and creating a scalable wellness business. 09:55 — Building a Habit, Not an Event The philosophy behind customer retention and long-term wellness behavior. 14:22 — Franchising at Scale How SweatHouz supports franchisees while maintaining brand consistency. 26:55 — What's Next for SweatHouz Loyalty programs, wearable integrations, and the company's future growth plans. 32:55 — Entrepreneurship, Fatherhood, & Leadership Nico reflects on balancing business growth with family life. 35:20 — Final Thoughts The future of recovery, hospitality, and building lasting businesses. Takeaways: Nico transitioned from private equity to becoming SweatHouz's first franchisee before ultimately stepping into the CEO role. SweatHouz has grown from a single studio in 2019 to more than 100 locations across 25 states. The company focuses on building “a habit, not an event” through recurring wellness routines. Memberships drive nearly half of the company's revenue and are critical to long-term retention. SweatHouz's private suite model differentiates it from many group-based recovery concepts. Strong hospitality and customer experience remain central to the brand's growth strategy. Franchising can accelerate growth when operators are empowered and included in decision-making. Technology, loyalty programs, and habit tracking will play a major role in the company's next chapter. Scaling a business requires balancing operational excellence with maintaining the core customer experience. Entrepreneurship and parenthood both require intentionality, flexibility, and making time for what matters.
Heart rate variability (HRV) is one of the most powerful metrics for understanding your recovery and resilience. In this week's episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist Dr. Kristen Holmes and WHOOP Staff Research Scientist Dr. Greg Grosicki explain what HRV actually measures and what it indicates about the health of your autonomic nervous system. They unpack the biggest factors that influence HRV, including sleep consistency, hydration, training load, psychological stress, alcohol, and illness. You'll learn how to use HRV as a practical guide to balance stress and recovery, identify which habits are helping or hurting your physiology, and make small, consistent lifestyle changes that support better performance, healthier aging, and greater resilience over time.(00:00) Cold Open(00:35) What is Heart Rate Variability (HRV)?(01:48) Why HRV Matters For Recovery(03:20) How WHOOP Measures HRV(04:44) Why You Shouldn't Compare Your HRV to Others(05:43) Understanding the Autonomic Nervous System(11:28) Why WHOOP Measures HRV During Sleep (12:36) How Your Behaviors Impact HRV(21:30) Impact of Sleep Consistency on HRV(23:19) The Relationship Between High Stress and HRV(26:54) How to Improve Your HRV(30:33) The Habits Negatively Impacting HRV(36:26) Why You Shouldn't Obsess Over HRV(37:51) HRV-CV: Understanding Weekly HRV Trends(41:49) How HRV Changes Over TimeListen to Our Episode on Heart Rate Variability Coefficient of Variation (HRV-CV)YouTubeSpotifyAppleSupport the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn
Have you ever hit every goal on paper and still felt like something inside you was falling apart? That's the question at the heart of this episode, and honestly, it's one I think about a lot as an entrepreneur myself. In this episode of The Happy Hustle Podcast, I sit down with Justin Roethlingshofer, a human performance expert, data driven health strategist, and longevity practitioner with over two decades of experience optimizing health and performance. Justin has a background that includes postgraduate doctoral research in cellular biology, work inside the National Hockey League, and now a powerful new book called Holy Health, Habits and Rhythms to Heal Your Body and Transform Your Life. He's also the health coach behind worship artist Brandon Lake, helping him sustain fifty shows on tour while keeping his body, mind, and spirit intact. What makes this episode matter is that Justin doesn't just talk theory. He's lived the full spectrum of health struggles himself, from an obese kid to an anorexic kid to a burned out high achiever who was told he might not see thirty five. And even with all his credentials, he still had to learn that true health isn't about optimization. It's about alignment, mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. We also dive into the story of Brian Johnson, the tech entrepreneur spending millions a year trying to reverse his aging, who's now dealing with a painful autoimmune condition. Justin breaks down why chasing perfect numbers without addressing the root of chronic stress can actually work against you, and why your body can't tell the difference between mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional stress. It just knows stress, and it responds. Here are a few takeaways that stuck with me. First, your cells need three things to thrive: oxygen, detoxification, and nutrients, and most of us are running environments that are starving them of all three. Second, sleep isn't optional. It's during deep sleep that your lymphatic system actually turns on and clears out the junk your body's been holding onto all day. Third, honoring a weekly Sabbath isn't just a spiritual discipline, it's backed by a study of 250,000 people showing those who kept one had eleven extra years of high quality output in their lives. Fourth, most of us are operating from a wounded place, whether that's a performer heart, a pleaser heart, or a protector heart, and until we deal with that root, we'll keep trading our health for a version of success that never actually satisfies. And fifth, healing isn't just physical. It requires your identity to be settled in who God says you are, not who the world demands you to be. What really got me was Justin's honesty about his own journey. Even as the expert, even with all the degrees and the leadership positions, he still hit a wall in a sauna five years ago and had to surrender the whole performance driven identity he'd built his life around. That kind of vulnerability from someone who coaches high performers for a living, it hits different. If you're ready to stop chasing health like it's another goal to conquer and start understanding what your body actually needs to heal, this conversation will shift the way you think about it. Justin's message is simple but it's not easy. You are designed to heal, you're created to thrive, and holy health is the path there. Go listen to the full episode at https://happyhustle.com/podcast. You'll walk away with a completely different lens on what it actually means to be healthy, and maybe the permission you didn't know you needed to stop striving and start healing. What does Happy Hustlin' mean to you? For Justin, happy hustlin' is being able to have the capacity to carry the calling that God has put on your life. Connect with Justinhttps://www.facebook.com/justin.roethlingshoeferhttps://www.instagram.com/justinroethhttps://www.youtube.com/@justinroethlingshoefer/featuredhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-roethlingshoefer/https://www.tiktok.com/@justinroeth Find Justin on this website: https://justinroethlingshoefer.com/ Connect with Cary!https://www.instagram.com/caryjack/https://www.facebook.com/SirCaryJackhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/cary-jack-kendzior/https://twitter.com/thehappyhustlehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFDNsD59tLxv2JfEuSsNMOQ/featured Get a copy of his new book, https://www.thehappyhustle.com/book Sign up for The Journey: 10 Days To Become a Happy Hustler Online Course @ https://thehappyhustle.com/thejourney/ Apply to the Montana Mastermind Epic Camping Adventure @ https://thehappyhustle.com/mastermind/ “It's time to Happy Hustle, a blissfully balanced life you love, full of passion, purpose, and positive impact!” Episode Sponsors: Kiln Your environment shapes your energy and your results. That's why we're proud to partner with Kiln, a premium workspace experience designed to help you work smarter, connect with amazing people, and elevate your lifestyle. From co-working and private offices to meeting rooms and event spaces, Kiln (https://kiln.com/) has everything you need to thrive. Mention "Happy Hustle" for a special hookup! =================================================================== If you're feeling stressed, not sleeping great, or your energy's been kinda meh lately—let me put you on to something that's been a total game-changer for me: Magnesium Breakthrough by BiOptimizers. This ain't your average magnesium—it's got all 7 essential forms that your body needs to chill out, sleep deeper, and feel more balanced. I take it every night and legit notice the difference the next day. No more waking up groggy or tossing and turning all night If you're ready to sleep like a baby, calm your nervous system, and optimize your recovery, go grab yours now at https://www.bioptimizers.com/happy and use code HAPPY10 for 10% OFF. =================================================================== My Green Mattress If you've been waking up with back pain, feeling stiff, or just not getting that deep, quality sleep. This might be what you're missing: My Green Mattress. It's made with clean, non-toxic, and eco-friendly materials, so you're not just sleeping better, you're sleeping healthier too. The comfort and support are on another level, and you can really feel the difference night after night. If you're ready to invest in better sleep and better recovery, check it out at https://thehappyhustle.com/mygreenmattress =================================================================== Ozlo Sleep If you've been struggling to fall asleep, stay asleep, or just wake up feeling actually rested, let me put you on to something that's been a total game-changer: Ozlo Sleep. These aren't your typical sleep buds. They're designed to block out noise and help your brain fully relax, so you can drift off faster and stay in deep, uninterrupted sleep. Perfect if you're a light sleeper or just want that next-level rest. If you're ready to upgrade your sleep and wake up feeling recharged, check out https://ozlosleep.com and save $80 OFF using code HAPPY.
Send us Fan MailWhat happens when two practitioners with decades of experience stop trying to provide answers and start exploring the questions?In this episode, I reconnect with longtime friend and performance therapist Gerry Ramogida for a wide-ranging conversation about performance therapy, Reconditioning, clinical reasoning, and what it really means to work with complex human beings.Gerry has spent nearly three decades working across the NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB, and Olympic sport, contributing to championship organizations including the Seattle Seahawks and Golden State Warriors. Today, he continues to work in professional hockey with the Vancouver Canucks while educating and mentoring practitioners around the world.We explore why diagnosis matters but can never tell the whole story, why understanding the demands of the person in front of you must precede intervention, and why practitioners need to continually observe, intervene, reassess, and remain willing to change direction. We talk about manual therapy as an input rather than an outcome, the importance of creating ownership after an intervention, and the danger of becoming so attached to our tools that everything begins to look like something we know how to treat.Perhaps most importantly, we talk about uncertainty.After almost thirty years of practice, Gerry makes the observation that certainty simply does not exist when working with complex human systems. Expertise may therefore be less about knowing exactly what will happen and more about developing the knowledge, curiosity and humility to explore what might.Our conversation eventually moves beyond performance and into something even more important: service, relationships and remembering the people who provide the foundation that allows us to do this work in the first place.This is a conversation between two old friends who have spent much of their lives trying to understand human performance and who remain fascinated by how much there is still to learn. EnjoyIf you liked this EP, please take the time to rate and comment, share with a friend, and connect with us on social channels IG @Kingopain, TW @BuiltbyScott, LI+FB Scott Livingston. You can find all things LYM at www.LYMLab.com, download your free Life Lab Starter Kit today and get busy living https://lymlab.com/free-lym-lab-starter/Please take the time to visit and connect with our sponsors, they are an essential part of our success:www.ReconditioningHQ.comwww.FreePainGuide.com
On todays episode of True-Blue Conversations, I am joined by former Australian Special Forces SASR veteran Dr Dan Cooper. After underperforming at school, Dan joined the Army and posted to 3 RAR, deploying to Timor in 1999. A short time later, Dan attempted SASR selection in 2001 and completed the selection course. After Reo and 9-11, Dan (qualifying as a water operator) deployed straight away on the 2nd rotation to Afghanistan in 2002. Dan served in all 3 Sabre SQNs and OSS during his career. Between 2002 and 2016, Dan conducted dozens of operations in Afghanistan and other parts of the world. In 2008, Dan started what would grow into the SASR Human Performance program and the foundation program for SOCOMD and the Army to develop their Human Performance and gained an undergrad degree in Sports Science a double masters in Strength and Conditioning and conducted research into cognitive and physiological performance. After qualifying for a research scholarship, Dan has gone on to further studies and has completed a PhD on the Human Factors to improve transfer of training and performance in high-threat combat environments. On leaving SASR, Dan spent 2 years working with the QLD Reds high-performance program. Dan now uses his experience and research to develop a Critical response performance and innovation initiative to provide free education, training, and development to front-line performers/organisations. Between 2010 and 2022 Dan completed a range of activities including a 250km multi day ultra in the Aussie desert, several 100km ultra's, coveted at the Cross-fit regionals and masters games, the Yukon Arctic Ultra 750km foot race, a 24hr obstacle course race, the Iditarod trail invitational 550km and 1600km foot race and currently looking into an attempt at a solo South Polo expedition. This is a raw, powerful and deeply honest conversation about sacrifice, resilience and the realities of life as an elite Australian Special Forces operator. Presenter: Adam Blum Guest: Dr Dan Cooper Editor: Kyle Watkins
In this bonus episode Andrea Samadi introduces the Predictable Performance System, a practical roadmap from her Brain's Operating System. She shows how measuring patterns—not chasing daily scores—plus consistent movement and targeted recovery behaviors create reliable adaptations and better performance over time. Andrea shares two real-world experiments (including a nine-day green recovery streak), five clear steps—measure, move, recover, adapt, perform—and a simple 7-day challenge to help you discover the single habit that unlocks more consistent results. On BONUS EPISODE 2, we will cover: Why high performance isn't about being “green” every day (using a wearable device) What nearly 2,000 recovery scores taught me about consistency and performance Why your daily inputs matter more than any single recovery score How I reached a personal best of 9 green recoveries in a row What happened when hard training caused my recovery to drop—and why that wasn't failure How another WHOOP user improved his recovery by identifying one key gap: hydration How to find your own gap in sleep, hydration, stress, movement, training load, or recovery The Predictable Performance System™: Measure → Move → Recover → Adapt → Perform → Repeat Why recovery is the bridge between today's effort and tomorrow's capacity How to create your own 7-Day Predictable Performance Experiment The key question to ask yourself: “What is the one missing input that could unlock my next level of performance?” The goal: Find your gap. Uncover your recipe. Build the system that works for you. BONUS EPISODE 2 The Predictable Performance System™ How Small Daily Inputs Create Better Recovery, Adaptation and More Consistent Results WELCOME BACK Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we explore how understanding the brain can help us create measurable improvements in our well-being, achievement, leadership, productivity, and results. I'm Andrea Samadi, and over the past several months, we've been building something much bigger than a collection of interviews. We've been building what I call The Brain's Operating System—a roadmap for understanding how our brain and body work together to create optimal human performance. Before we jump into today's second Bonus Episode, let's quickly remember where we've been. PHASE 1 — REGULATION & SAFETY Everything begins with regulation. Before the brain can learn, perform, or grow, it first needs the biological conditions that support safety and stability. In Phase 1, we explored sleep, stress regulation, trauma, resilience and the nervous system. The lesson was simple: Regulation creates the conditions for growth. PHASE 2 — NEUROCHEMISTRY & MOTIVATION Then we asked: What moves us into action? We explored dopamine, beliefs, motivation, habits, attention and sustained effort. We learned that motivation isn't simply about willpower. Our brain is continually learning: What's worth pursuing? What should I repeat? Where should I invest my energy with? Phase 2 gave us some direction. PHASE 3 — MOVEMENT, LEARNING & COGNITION And now we're deep inside Phase 3. This is where movement becomes much more than exercise. Movement activates the brain. It supports attention. Learning. Memory. Metabolism. And when movement is paired with adequate recovery, something important happens: Adaptation. That's where our system begins to change. So the basic sequence we've been studying is: Movement → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance. But while studying this process, another question kept coming back to me. Why do some people consistently improve...while others feel like they're starting over every Monday and they are searching for the right formula. That question led me to today's framework: THE PREDICTABLE PERFORMANCE SYSTEM™ And this Bonus Episode is where I want to put the science into action. Throughout The Brain's Operating System, these Bonus Episodes will give me an opportunity to step away from the interviews and show you what happens when I apply what we're learning to my own life. I'll share the experiments. The data. What worked. What didn't. And most importantly... what we can learn from it, so we can ALL apply this information to our own lives. Because neuroscience becomes much more useful when we can turn what we know into something we can actually do. THE QUESTION THAT STARTED THIS EXPERIMENT Over the past five years, I've tracked close to 2,000 recovery scores using WHOOP (wearable device). And recently something happened that surprised me. I recorded nine green recoveries in a row (which meant for 9 days in a row, I had mastered recovery (my body's ability to take on strain and perform). This recovery score is calculated overnight using my RHR, HRV, RR, SpO2 (blood O2) and skin temperature. Factors like strain, stress and lifestyle choices affect this Recovery Score. That was a personal record. For years, I could put together a few strong days. Sometimes even a strong week. My record for years was 7 days in a row. But eventually something would interrupt the pattern. I'd train too hard. Sleep poorly. Travel. Get busy. Or simply fail to give myself enough time to recover. So when I reached nine consecutive green recoveries, instead of just celebrating the streak, I became curious. I asked: What changed? Because I wasn't on vacation. My work hadn't disappeared. I was still recording the podcast. Still exercising. Still traveling. Waking up early. Eating the same diet. In those green days most of the days I avoided alcohol (something I have learned from measuring everything I ingest—this will automatically tank my recovery score) but I did have one drink a couple of these days and still managed to keep a green score. Something that was highly unusual. I kept wondering what was I doing differently. Life hadn't suddenly become easy. So what was different? I went back through my data. And I stopped looking at individual scores. Instead, I started looking for patterns. That distinction changed everything. DON'T CHASE THE SCORE. STUDY THE PATTERN. When I first started tracking recovery, I'd look at each morning individually. Green? Great. Yellow? What did I do wrong? Red? I must have done something terribly wrong! Looking at the patterns, I did learn that after a 4-hour hike, even one alcoholic drink will kick my recovery score into the red unrecovered zone. When you push your body hard, it's just not worth it to ingest a neuro-toxin. At least for me, it's not worth it. We are all different, and that's why measuring your own data is a valuable activity. What tanks my score, might not tank yours. Now I'm wondering what happens repeatedly? What tends to happen before my strongest recoveries? What happens before my worst ones? (the recipe was beyond clear here). What habits disappear when my recovery starts declining? And which habits consistently appear when it improves? That's where the story became much clearer. It wasn't one workout. It wasn't one supplement. It wasn't one perfect night's sleep. And it definitely wasn't motivation. It was the accumulation of small behaviors being repeated consistently. And that led me to one of the most important lessons from this entire experiment: The recovery score doesn't create the result. The behaviors that happened before the recovery score create the conditions for the result. I learned my recipe to create a RED recovery, and how to create a GREEN. The wearable device simply gives us feedback on how well we are doing with our recipe for success. THE DATA TELLS TWO STORIES When I looked at the data, I realized I actually had two experiments happening. The first was mine. I had the recipe for how to recover, and how to tank my score. The second belonged to another WHOOP user. And together, they revealed something much more interesting than either story alone. STORY ONE — MY DATA When I zoomed out across 6 months, my average recovery was around 58%. That's real life. There were excellent weeks. There were difficult weeks. Travel. When I was away internationally, sometimes without internet, the data didn't record correctly, but this is a good picture of what my scores look like. Work. Training. Stress. Vacations. Life happens. But recently that monthly average climbed to approximately 63%—an 11% improvement over the month before. For me, that mattered. Historically, when my monthly recovery averages climbed substantially, it was often because I had removed myself from normal life. Maybe I was on vacation. Maybe I was completely unplugged. But this time I wasn't. I was working. Training. Recording. Traveling. Living normal life. Life didn't become easier. My daily system became more consistent. And eventually that consistency produced something I'd never seen before: Nine green recoveries in a row. But here's what happened next. If you look at the graph…I just went about life as usual. I trained hard. My recovery dropped. And that became perhaps an even more important part of the experiment. Because this time I didn't panic. I didn't interpret one lower score as failure. I simply returned to the consistent behaviors that had been working in my GREEN streak. Sleep. Hydration. Movement. Stress management. Recovery time. And within a few days, the stronger recovery scores returned. That taught me something important: Predictable performance does NOT mean perfect performance. It means that you've got to find a system you know how to return to. My GREEN scores are now predictable. STORY TWO — FIND THE LEVER Around the same time, another WHOOP user turned to me and asked “why am I stuck in RED (unrecovered) everyday?” His pattern looked completely different. His monthly recovery average was around 41%. Lots of yellow. Lots of red. And very little improvement. Instead of randomly changing everything, we looked at the inputs. Sleep. Stress. Training load. Recovery time. Hydration. And one variable stood out to me. Hydration. So rather than redesigning his entire life, we focused on consistently improving that one behavior. When I say he improved hydration, we increased not just water, but we added an electrolyte drink (Liquid IV sugar free[i]) to his water to replenish minerals like sodium and potassium that he was losing from sweating in the 115 degree weather we are experiencing at the moment in AZ. Then we watched the data. His recovery pattern improved. More yellows appeared. His averages increased. And his recovery became more consistent. Today I asked him what he's noticed with this one change, and he let me know that his scores have been creeping up slowly. No green scores yet, but he's high yellow, which shows me that he's cracking his recovery recipe. Now, that doesn't mean hydration is the magic answer for everyone. That's not the lesson. The lesson is: Find YOUR lever. For one person, it might be hydration. For someone else, it might be sleep. Alcohol. Stress. Training volume. Late-night eating. Travel. Or simply not allowing enough recovery between difficult training sessions. Your job isn't to copy someone else's system perfectly. Your job is to use feedback to discover what matters most for you. Find your gap in your recovery system and you unlock more consistent, predictable performance. TAKEAWAY #1 STOP GUESSING. START MEASURING. You cannot recognize a pattern you aren't observing. And you don't need WHOOP to do this. Just find what tool works best for you. You could track five simple things each morning: Sleep How well did I sleep? Energy How energetic do I feel? Stress How stressed or regulated do I feel? Movement What did I do yesterday? Recovery behaviors Did I hydrate, recover and give my body what it needed? Give each category a simple score out of 10. Then look at the entire week. Not just one day. TIP TO IMPLEMENT: For the next seven days, spend 30 seconds each morning recording: Hours of sleep Energy from 1–10 Stress from 1–10 Yesterday's movement One recovery behavior Don't change anything yet. First, collect information. Look for patterns before looking for the solution. THE BIG REALIZATION As I studied both experiments, the framework became obvious. Recovery isn't something that simply happens to us. There are many things we can't control. But every day we can influence the probability of recovering well. Our choices create patterns. Patterns create trends. Trends influence adaptation. And over enough time... those adaptations influence performance. Which brings us to the system. THE PREDICTABLE PERFORMANCE SYSTEM™ There are five steps. STEP 1 — MEASURE Awareness comes first. Track enough information to recognize trends. But remember: The goal isn't to become obsessed with data. (I'm borderline obsessed with mine). The goal is to use data to make better decisions. ASK YOURSELF: What's improving? What did I do to get this improvement? Write it down. What's declining? What did I do to tank my score? Write it down. And what repeatedly happens before each pattern? Learn your recovery recipe. What works for you? What does not work? TIP: Look at your weekly average instead of judging yourself by one day. One bad night doesn't define your health. One hard workout doesn't destroy your fitness. One red recovery doesn't erase your progress. Look for the trend. Learn what your personal recipe for success is. STEP 2 — MOVE Movement is the input. This is where Phase 3 begins. Movement challenges the system. We don't want to aim for a month of all green or high recoveries, because then we aren't challenging our system. Movement activates the brain and body and provides the stimulus from which adaptation can occur. But movement doesn't always mean crushing yourself in the gym. It might mean: Walking. Strength training. Hiking. Mobility. Cycling. Running. Playing a sport. Or simply interrupting long periods of sitting. TIP TO IMPLEMENT: Ask yourself each morning: "How will I move today?" Don't leave movement to chance. Put something on the calendar. Even a 20-minute walk counts. Consistency matters. STEP 3 — RECOVER This is the step I underestimated for years. I understood effort. I understood discipline. I understood training. But I didn't fully appreciate that the work isn't complete when the workout ends. The brain and body still have to process the stimulus. So recovery becomes an active part of the performance system. Protect sleep. Hydrate. Manage stress. Build recovery into the schedule. And learn when not to push. TIP TO IMPLEMENT: Create what I call your Recovery Minimums. Choose three behaviors that you protect even during busy weeks. For example: My Recovery Minimums ✓ Consistent sleep (going to bed and waking up at the same time) ✓ Daily hydration (I use liquid IV in the day and LMNT hot chocolate at night) ✓ Daily movement (I walk every morning, hike on the weekends, fit in gym workouts and strength training) to keep movement going. ✓ Stress regulation (always a work in progress, but breath work is my current way to manage stress) ✓ Time for recovery (I stack meditation and infrared sauna use together to save time). Your list may look different. But decide what your minimums are before life gets busy and you aren't putting time into recovery. STEP 4 — ADAPT This is the part we usually can't see. And it's one of the reasons people quit too early. Adaptation happens behind the scenes. You train. You recover. And your system responds. Over time, movement becomes easier. Your capacity expands. Your cardiovascular system becomes more efficient. Skills become more automatic. Your tolerance for challenge increases. Then one day... something that once felt difficult feels normal. TIP TO IMPLEMENT: Don't only measure outcomes. Look for evidence of adaptation. Ask: Is this workout getting easier? Am I recovering faster? Is my resting heart rate trending differently? Am I sleeping better? Look for how many wakes you have each night. Can I handle more work without feeling depleted? Is my concentration improving? Am I stronger? Do I have more energy? Those are clues that the system is adapting. STEP 5 — PERFORM This is where most people want to start. Results. Achievement. The High Performance. But performance isn't Step One. It's Step Five. First we provide the stimulus. We move. Then we recover. Then we adapt. And eventually... performance becomes evidence that the earlier steps worked. You will notice you can sit longer, stay focused on one task, and see tasks through to completion. This changes the question from: "How can I perform better today?" to: "What can I do today that makes better performance more likely tomorrow?" That's a very different way of thinking. TAKEAWAY #2 DON'T TRY TO FIX EVERYTHING. One of the most useful things we learned from the second recovery experiment was that sometimes one behavior acts as a bottleneck. For the person with the low recovery score, hydration appeared to be an important lever. Stick to changing ONE thing at a time. When I first saw his HRV, I wanted to go there, but we started with hydration. So here's something you can try. Look at your own patterns and ask: "What is the ONE behavior that would make everything else work better?" Maybe it's getting to bed earlier. Maybe it's drinking more water. Maybe it's moving every day. Maybe it's reducing alcohol. Maybe it's taking a recovery day. Maybe it's managing evening stress. Start there. TIP: Run a seven-day experiment. Change one variable. Keep everything else reasonably consistent. Track what happens. Then evaluate. Don't guess. Test. This has been the most eye-opening part of finding my own personal recipe for high performance. Once you uncover yours, you can create your own predictable formula for high performance. TAKEAWAY #3 CREATE A BASELINE YOU CAN RETURN TO. One of the biggest changes in my thinking came after the nine-green streak ended. My recovery dropped after hard training. But I knew what to do. I returned to the system. That's resilience. Not maintaining perfect conditions forever. But knowing how to return to your baseline when life knocks you away from it. Ask yourself: "When everything gets busy, what behaviors bring me back?" Write them down. That becomes your reset protocol. That's how I was able to create high recoveries the past few days making my monthly recovery a 16% increase over last month. TAKEAWAY #4 RECOVERY IS THE BRIDGE While developing this framework, I kept seeing the same image in my mind. A bridge. On one side is today's effort. On the other side is tomorrow's capability. Recovery is the bridge connecting the two. Without sufficient recovery, today's effort may never fully become tomorrow's capacity. With recovery, we give the brain and body an opportunity to adapt. Today's habits create the conditions for today's recovery. Recovery supports tomorrow's adaptation. Adaptation creates future capacity. And expanded capacity improves performance. That's the system. YOUR 7-DAY PREDICTABLE PERFORMANCE EXPERIMENT Here's your action step from today's episode. For the next seven days: MEASURE Track sleep, energy, stress and how overall recovered you feel each day. If you don't have a device to do this, just rank yourself on a scale of 0-10. MOVE Do something intentional every day. RECOVER Protect the recovery behaviors you've identified as most important. Mine are daily meditation, journaling, hydration, breath work and sauna use. LOOK FOR ADAPTATION Notice what begins becoming easier or more consistent. Where do you feel stronger? REVIEW YOUR PERFORMANCE At the end of seven days, ask: What improved? What got worse? What behavior had the biggest effect? What should I repeat next week? That's it. You're not trying to create a perfect week. You're trying to learn how your own system works. I don't know what your recipe for high performance will look like, but once you've got this recipe, your life will never be the same. THE BIG TAKEAWAY After nearly 2,000 recovery scores, here's what I believe matters most. Don't chase the score. Chase the behaviors that create the score. (Notice what they are—write them down). Don't chase one perfect workout. Build consistency. Don't panic when the data drops. Investigate. Don't change ten things at once. Find the lever. And above all... don't confuse effort with adaptation. Sometimes the thing that moves us forward isn't doing more. It's allowing the work we've already done to become part of us. The goal isn't perfect recovery. The goal isn't nine green days (while I've got my eye on how I can make this 10)… The goal isn't controlling every variable in our lives. The goal is to create a system that makes better outcomes more likely. Better days become better weeks. Better weeks become better months. And over enough time... what once felt difficult can become your new normal. REVIEW AND CONCLUSION To review and conclude BONUS EPISODE 2: Find the Gap—How Recovery Unlocks Predictable Performance, here's where we are in The Brain's Operating System. Phase 1 taught us to regulate. Before we can learn, perform, or grow, we need the biological conditions that support safety and stability. Phase 2 taught us what drives us to act. We explored motivation, dopamine, beliefs, attention, and the internal chemistry that moves us toward a goal. And now... Phase 3 is teaching us how we change. We move. We create a stimulus. We recover. The brain and body adapt. Our capacity expands. And eventually, that adaptation shows up as better performance. That's why today's framework matters. Because when performance feels inconsistent, the answer isn't always to work harder. Sometimes we need to ask: Where is the gap in my system? Is it movement? Sleep? Hydration? Stress? Recovery time? Consistency? Because when we can identify the gap, we can begin to change the input. And when we change the input consistently... we create new conditions for adaptation. That's how performance begins to change. So remember the sequence: Measure. Move. Recover. Adapt. Perform. And then repeat. Because performance isn't a finish line. It's feedback from the system you're building. When we complete Phase 3, we'll soon move into Phase 4—Connection, Emotion & Social Intelligence, where another layer enters the system: Other people. Relationships. Emotion. Trust. Communication. Empathy. Leadership. And then in Phase 5—Integration & Human Performance, we'll bring everything together: Regulation. Motivation. Movement. Recovery. Emotion. Relationships. Learning. Purpose. And performance. Because ultimately, no system works in isolation. Human performance is the result of all of these systems working together. FINAL TAKEAWAY If there's one idea I hope you remember from today's episode, it's this: Don't just chase the outcome. Study the system producing it. If your results aren't where you want them to be... find the gap. Because the gap may not be in your effort. It may be in your recovery. And when you find the gap in your recovery system... you unlock your next level of adaptation, capacity, and performance. Thank you for joining me for this second Bonus Episode. If today's framework helped connect the dots for you, I'd love to hear what you discover. What's the one habit that has the greatest impact on your recovery and performance? Sleep? Movement? Hydration? Stress management? Recovery time? And if you try the 7-Day Predictable Performance Experiment, pay attention to what your own data teaches you. Not whether every day is perfect. But what patterns begin to emerge. Until next time... Keep measuring. Keep moving. Keep recovering. Give your brain and body time to adapt. And keep building the systems that make better performance more predictable. Have an incredible week and we'll see you on EP 405 where we revisit Dr. Kristen Holmes and dive deep into more ways to improve our recovery., RESOURCES: Phase 1: Regulation & Safety The Foundation Core Question: Is the nervous system safe enough to learn? Everything begins with regulation. Before we can focus, learn, lead, or perform, the brain first asks one fundamental question: Am I safe? Throughout Phase 1, our guests showed us that regulation isn't simply about reducing stress—it's about creating the biological conditions that allow the brain to learn, adapt, and thrive. Together we explored: Baland Jalal – how sleep, curiosity, imagination, and creativity prepare the brain for learning. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/hypnagogic-genius-capture-your-best-ideas-at-the-edge-of-sleep/ Dr. Bruce Perry – why regulation, rhythm, and relationships form the foundation of every healthy nervous system. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/safety-first-why-a-regulated-brain-is-the-key-to-learning/ Dr. Sui Wong – how lifestyle medicine and autonomic balance build lifelong brain resilience. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/your-eyes-the-brain-s-early-warning-system/ Rohan Dixit – how heart rate variability gives us real-time feedback on our ability to regulate stress. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/breathe-to-reset-how-hrv-tech-reveals-hidden-stress/ Dr. Kristen Holmes – how recovery metrics reveal our physiological readiness to perform. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/ Dr. Antonio Zadra – how sleep and dreaming consolidate memories, regulate emotions, and generate insight. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/when-brains-dream-how-sleep-integrates-emotion-insight-and-creativity/ Together these conversations taught us that sleep and stress regulation aren't optional—they're the operating system that allows every higher brain function to work. Phase 2: Motivation & Neurochemistry The Direction Core Question: What moves us into action? Once the brain feels safe, it becomes ready to pursue goals. In Phase 2, we explored the internal chemistry that transforms intention into action. Our experts helped us understand that sustainable motivation isn't about willpower—it's about aligning our beliefs, thoughts, attention, energy, and movement. Together we discovered: Bob Proctor — our beliefs determine the direction of our lives. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/belief-first-the-neuroscience-of-motivation/ Dr. Carolyn Leaf — our thinking literally changes our brain chemistry. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/thoughts-as-biology-how-your-mind-shapes-neurochemistry/ Dr. John Medina — attention determines what the brain encodes and remembers. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/theory-of-mind-the-missing-link-between-attention-reward-and-motivation Dr. Anna Lembke- Dopamine, Motivation and Why the Brain Repeats Behavior https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dopamine-nation-the-pleasure%e2%80%93pain-balance-that-drives-motivation/ Dr. Friederike Fabritius — managing our energy allows high performance to become sustainable. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/fun-fear-focus-closing-the-motivation-loop/ Dr. Chuck Hillman & Paul Zientarski — movement activates the brain, preparing it to learn. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/move-to-learn-how-movement-activates-the-brain-and-fuels-motivation/ By the end of Phase 2, we introduced what became The Motivation Loop, showing how beliefs influence thoughts, thoughts influence actions, actions create results, and results reinforce future beliefs. Phase 3: Movement, Learning & Human Performance The Transformation Core Question: How does movement change the brain—and how does recovery transform that change into performance? Now we're taking the next step. Phase 3 builds on everything we've learned so far. If Phase 1 created a regulated nervous system... If Phase 2 created motivation and direction... Phase 3 explains how the brain and body actually become stronger. Together we've explored this process through conversations with: Dr. Chuck Hillman & Paul Zientarski — why movement activates the brain before learning. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-first-how-a-20%e2%80%91minute-walk-lights-up-the-brain/ Dr. John Ratey — how exercise builds a healthier, younger brain. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-matters-how-every-move-rewires-the-brain/ Dr. Kristen Holmes — why recovery determines adaptation and readiness. Dr. John Medina — how attention transforms movement into lasting learning. Jason Whitrock — how metabolism and cellular energy fuel long-term performance. WHERE WE ARE GOING NEXT Phase 4 — Connection, Emotion & Social Intelligence The Human System Core Question: How do we thrive with other people? The brain didn't evolve in isolation—it evolved through relationships. In Phase 4, we'll explore emotional intelligence, empathy, communication, trust, leadership, and psychological safety to understand how our relationships shape learning, well-being, and performance. Phase 5 — Integration & Human Performance The Complete System Core Question: How do all the systems work together? In our final phase, we'll bring everything together—regulation, motivation, movement, emotion, relationships, learning, and recovery—into one integrated framework. We'll discover how these systems work together to create measurable improvements in our well-being, achievement, leadership, productivity, and results. REFERENCES: [i] Liquid IV https://www.liquid-iv.com/collections/hydration-multiplier-sugar-free
Dr. Kristen Holmes is the Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist at WHOOP, where she leads pioneering research on the interplay between physiological metrics and behavioral patterns Today on the show we discuss why sleep consistency can matter more than duration, how caffeine can sabotage recovery even when you fall asleep easily, why alcohol and marijuana leave you unconscious but not deeply restored, how daytime stress and artificial light disrupt your nervous system at night, the simple daily routine that resets your circadian rhythm, and how Kristen healed from trauma and stopped tying her self-worth to achievement. Thank you to today's sponsor: Momentous Try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine: https://www.livemomentous.com Use code ADVERSITY for up to 35% off your entire first order Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Women's health has long been underserved by research, leaving many women without the information they need to understand their own bodies. On this week's episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist Dr. Kristen Holmes sits down with Dr. Elina Berglund Scherwitzl, Co-Founder & CEO of Natural Cycles° and Nobel Prize-winning particle physicist. The conversation explores how data is transforming women's reproductive health.After helping discover the Higgs boson, Dr. Berglund Scherwitzl turned her expertise in physics and data science toward her own health journey by creating the world's first and only FDA-cleared birth control app. Together, Dr. Holmes and Dr. Berglund Scherwitzl discuss how wearable technology and physiological data are giving women unprecedented insight into fertility, pregnancy planning, menstrual health, and perimenopause.The conversation explores the new WHOOP and Natural Cycles° integration, designed to make women's health feel less overwhelming and more intuitive by combining continuous wearable data with advanced insights on fertility, hormonal health, and perimenopause. Dr. Holmes and Dr. Berglund Scherwitzl discuss how body temperature and other biomarkers reveal hormonal changes, why perimenopause often begins earlier than many women realize, and how passive, personalized insights can reduce uncertainty, ease mental load, and empower women to make informed decisions about their health at every stage of life.(00:00) Cold Open (00:37) Meet The Scientist Behind Natural Cycles°(01:00) Why Dr. Berglund Scherwitzl Started Natural Cycles°(04:35) The Only FDA-Cleared Birth Control App(05:54) The WHOOP x Natural Cycles° Partnership(07:51) The Early Signs of Perimenopause (And How To Track Them)(13:08) What Really Happens To Your Hormones Over Time(17:34) Why Understanding Your Body Changes Everything(19:09) Your Sleep Could Reveal Early Signs of Perimenopause(22:03) The Small Habits That Make A Big Difference(24:14) The Most Common Menstrual Cycle Myths(26:09) What Your Wearable Can Tell You About Your Hormones(27:07) The Truth About Fertility Timing(29:16) Knowing Which Symptoms Matter Most(31:36) HRT: What Women Should Know(34:10) What You Can Expect From The WHOOP x Natural Cycles° Partnership(37:05) The Future of Women's HealthFollow Dr. Elina Berglund Scherwitzl:LinkedInWebsiteFollow Natural Cycles°:InstagramYouTubeWebsiteSupport the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn
Send us Fan MailWhat happens when you refuse to stop asking questions?In Episode 491 of Leave Your Mark, I sit down with Steven Copobianco—better known to many as "Capo"—to explore a career that has been defined by curiosity, continuous learning, and a relentless desire to better serve people.Steve is a clinician, educator, innovator, and co-founder of RockTape. A graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic West with a Diplomate in Rehabilitation and Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist designation, he has spent more than two decades teaching clinicians around the world to think differently about movement, rehabilitation, and performance.But this conversation goes far beyond credentials.We trace Steve's journey from growing up on a farm near Barrie, Ontario, to his love of hockey and the Boston Bruins, through York University, Florida, Palmer West, and eventually to building one of the most recognizable education companies in rehabilitation.Along the way, we discuss the value of observation, why you don't need to be an expert in every sport to understand movement, how working with individuals with cerebral palsy changed the trajectory of his career, and why the best clinicians eventually stop treating body parts and start seeing the person in front of them.We also talk about entrepreneurship, fatherhood, community, and how success often comes from being willing to leave the comfort of what you know in pursuit of what you might become.If you're a clinician, coach, therapist, or simply someone who believes that growth begins with curiosity, you'll find plenty to take away from this conversation.Enjoy Episode 491 with Steven Copobianco.If you liked this EP, please take the time to rate and comment, share with a friend, and connect with us on social channels IG @Kingopain, TW @BuiltbyScott, LI+FB Scott Livingston. You can find all things LYM at www.LYMLab.com, download your free Life Lab Starter Kit today and get busy living https://lymlab.com/free-lym-lab-starter/Please take the time to visit and connect with our sponsors, they are an essential part of our success:www.ReconditioningHQ.comwww.FreePainGuide.com
In this episode Andrea Samadi explores Phase Three of the Brain's Operating System — how movement acts as the essential input that activates the brain, sharpens attention, boosts learning, and improves social and emotional readiness. Drawing on Dr. John Ratey's insights and related neuroscience research, she explains the chain reaction from exercise to brain activation, learning, and adaptation. The episode also emphasizes the vital role of recovery in consolidating gains so movement leads to lasting performance improvements, and invites listeners to adopt movement as a daily catalyst for clearer thinking, better learning, and greater resilience. Dr. John Ratey and The Movement Loop On this episode 404, we will: Explore where Dr. John Ratey's groundbreaking research fits within the Movement Loop. Understand how movement activates the brain and prepares us to learn. Discover why attention is the gateway to learning and performance. Connect Dr. Ratey's work with Dr. Chuck Hillman, Dr. John Medina, Kristen Holmes, and Jason Whitrock to see the bigger picture. Learn how movement becomes lasting human performance by building our capacity over time. How Movement Becomes Human Performance Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. I'm Andrea Samadi, and on this podcast, we bridge the science behind social and emotional learning, emotional intelligence, and practical neuroscience so we can create measurable improvements in well-being, achievement, productivity, and results. If you've been following along through Season 16, you'll know we've been building what I call The Brain's Operating System for Human Performance—a neuroscience-based framework that explains how movement, recovery, and adaptation work together to improve our health, learning, leadership, and performance. Over the past seven years and more than 400 episodes, I've had the privilege of interviewing neuroscientists, physicians, psychologists, educators, and high performers from around the world. As I looked across those conversations, I realized they weren't isolated ideas—they were pieces of a much larger system. I've organized that system into five interconnected phases that mirror how we grow and develop throughout life. And as we work through each of these phases, we are sharpening our saw for productivity, learning and high performance, really, with the brain and body in mind. Phase 1 is Regulation and Safety, we launched on EP 384[i] with Dr. Baland Jalal on Sleep, Safety and Curiosity. This phase is where we build the foundation by understanding the nervous system, stress, emotions, and the importance of creating internal and external safety before learning or productivity can take place. Phase 2 is Neurochemistry and Motivation, where we explore how dopamine, reward, purpose, and emotional regulation influence our choices, habits, and sustained effort. Today, we're in Phase 3: Movement, Learning, and Cognition. This is where movement becomes the catalyst that prepares the brain to pay attention, learn, adapt, and ultimately perform at a higher level. In Phase 4, we'll discover how perception and social intelligence shape the way we understand ourselves, communicate, build trust, and strengthen relationships. And finally, in Phase 5, we'll bring everything together through integration and meaning—understanding how our experiences become wisdom, resilience, purpose, and lifelong growth. Each phase builds on the one before it, because meaningful human performance isn't created in a single breakthrough—it's built one system at a time. Together, they create what I believe is the brain's operating system for human performance. If we want to improve the entire big picture of our results, we can dive deeper into these 5 phases to see what areas we could sharpen a bit. I've put the individual episodes of each phase in the show notes for a deeper dive. Today's episode is one of those foundational pieces of Phase 3. Because before we can improve performance, we first need to understand how movement changes the brain. In Episode 402[ii], we introduced The Movement Loop, built around one simple idea: Movement is the input—it's what we do. Recovery enables adaptation—it's how the brain and body grow stronger. Performance is the outcome—the results we can see, feel, and measure. Every cycle expands our capacity to learn, lead, and perform. Every movement we make sends a signal to the brain and body. That signal activates the brain— increasing blood flow, neurotransmitters, and neuroplasticity—preparing us to pay attention and learn. When movement is followed by adequate recovery, the brain and body adapt. Those adaptations become the foundation for better performance—whether that's learning more effectively, thinking more clearly, leading with greater confidence, or improving our physical health. Then, in Episode 403[iii], Dr. Chuck Hillman helped us understand why movement changes the brain. We learned that every step increases blood flow, stimulates the release of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor—BDNF, often called fertilizer for the brain—and prepares the neural networks responsible for attention, learning, memory, and executive function. But understanding why movement changes the brain is only part of the story. Today's episode answers a different question: What does that actually look like in real life? How does movement change our brain? To answer that question, we're returning to one of my favorite interviews from March of 2021 with Harvard psychiatrist and bestselling author Dr. John Ratey, whose groundbreaking book Spark helped change the way millions of people think about exercise and the brain. Now, you might be wondering... "Andrea, didn't we already review Dr. Ratey's work in Episodes 375[iv] and 376[v]?" We did. But today isn't simply another review. Today we're looking at Dr. Ratey's work through an entirely new lens. When we first interviewed Dr. Ratey in 2021, I knew movement was important. But after spending the past several years interviewing experts like Dr. Chuck Hillman, Dr. John Medina, Dr. Kristen Holmes, Jason Whitrock, and hundreds of others—and measuring my own health and performance data that we'll explore throughout this season's bonus episodes—I now understand exactly where Dr. Ratey's research fits inside the Movement Loop. As I looked across all of those conversations, I realized they weren't isolated ideas. They were pieces of one much larger system. Today we're in Phase 3: Movement, Learning, and Cognition—the phase where movement becomes the catalyst for attention, learning, adaptation, and ultimately, human performance. In the coming phases, we'll discover how perception shapes our relationships, and finally how everything integrates into meaning, purpose, and lifelong growth. Today's conversation with Dr. Ratey is one of the foundational building blocks of Phase 3. Why This Matters If you've listened to this podcast for a while, you've probably heard me talk about movement as one of the few true non-negotiables in my day. Before my workday begins, I've already made time to move—not because I'm training for a race or trying to burn calories, but because I know how profoundly movement changes the way my brain performs. The research is clear. Movement prepares the brain to pay attention, learn more effectively, regulate emotions, solve problems, and perform at a higher level. I've experienced these benefits firsthand. On the days I move first, I think more clearly, I'm more productive, and I'm better equipped to handle whatever challenges the day brings. And I imagine many of you listening have experienced the same thing. Once you begin noticing how movement changes your thinking, it becomes much easier to make it a consistent part of your life. Why This Season Exists That's why my hope for Season 16 isn't simply to convince you that exercise is good for you. My goal is much bigger than that. It's to demonstrate why movement is the first step in The movement loop—and to show how every movement you make begins a chain reaction that improves learning, health, leadership, and performance. With every cycle, we don't just improve today's performance. We expand our capacity for tomorrow. As we continue exploring the Movement Loop, I hope you'll begin to see movement differently—not as another item on your to-do list, but as the input that starts an entire system of growth. Because movement isn't the goal. Movement is the beginning of everything that follows. CLIP 1: Movement Primes the Brain for Learning CLIP 1: Social Connection Reflection: Where This Fits in the Movement Loop Let's review Clip 1 with Dr. Ratey. When we listen to his clip through that lens, every sentence he shares fits into a specific step of the process. Reviewing Dr. Ratey, through the lens of The Movement Loop. Step 1: Movement — The Input Everything begins with movement. Movement is the signal we send to the brain and body that says: "It's time to wake up. It's time to adapt." Without movement, nothing else in the loop begins. As Dr. Ratey says, movement is what "turns on the thinking parts of the brain." Step 2: Brain Activation — The Brain Wakes Up This is exactly what we learned from Dr. Chuck Hillman in Episode 403[vi]. Movement immediately increases blood flow to the brain. It activates neurotransmitters. It stimulates Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, or BDNF, helping create the ideal environment for learning. Dr. Hillman explained what is happening biologically. Dr. Ratey in this clip explains what we experience. You suddenly feel more alert. More awake. More ready to think. These are two perspectives describing the same process. Step 3: Attention — The Gateway to Learning This is where Dr. Ratey's words become especially powerful. He says movement helps us: stay with an idea, focus longer, evaluate information, scan our memory, and even simply stay seated long enough to think through something difficult. That isn't just better concentration. That's improved attention, and attention is the gateway to learning. Without attention, very little learning takes place. Movement prepares the brain to pay attention. At this point in the interview, he was referencing the fact that I had told him that I couldn't write podcast episodes on this topic without moving my body first. In the early days of this podcast, I found the science very difficult to understand. A couple of times I did think that this topic was over my head, and almost considered giving up. Almost, but very grateful for where the learning took me that I stuck it through. Step 4: Learning — Building New Neural Connections Once attention improves, learning becomes possible. Now the brain can: process information, make connections, strengthen memories, and solve problems more effectively. This is why Dr. Ratey says movement helps us become better learners, better thinkers, better workers, and better students. Movement isn't improving muscles first. It's improving the brain's ability to learn. Step 5: Social and Emotional Readiness One part of this interview that has become even more meaningful over time is Dr. Ratey's explanation of social connection. Exercise doesn't only improve cognition. It also changes our emotional state. We're more motivated. We regulate our emotions more effectively. We become more socially connected. Dr. Ratey explains that movement increases oxytocin—the hormone associated with bonding and trust—making us more open to connecting with others. That's important because learning has always been social. Whether we're in a classroom, at work, or with our families, our ability to connect with other people influences how well we learn, communicate, and perform. Movement prepares us socially as well as cognitively. Step 6: Recovery and Adaptation — Where Lasting Change Happens Now here's the part I didn't fully appreciate back in 2021. Everything Dr. Ratey has described prepares the brain for learning. But those immediate benefits only become lasting improvements if they're followed by recovery. Recovery is when the brain consolidates learning. It's when new neural connections are strengthened. It's when adaptation occurs. This is where Kristen Holmes' work on recovery fits perfectly into the Movement Loop. We recently reviewed our 2021 interview with Kristen Holmes on EP 390[vii] “What Gets Measured Improves: Sleep, Recovery and Strain” and it was Dr. Holmes who was (not the first person to notice I could improve my recovery scores) but was stern enough with me about how important that it was, and how I was leaving a lot off the table by not getting enough sleep/recovery to match the strain I was pushing towards each day. Movement starts the process. Recovery completes it. And together (this won't happen if one is missing) they create adaptation—the biological changes that make us stronger, healthier, and more resilient over time. The Big Takeaway When I first interviewed Dr. John Ratey in 2021, I thought he was teaching us why exercise is good for the brain. Today, after years of interviewing neuroscientists, physicians, performance experts, and educators, I see something much bigger. Dr. Ratey wasn't simply describing the benefits of exercise. He was describing the beginning of a biological process. Movement is the input. Movement activates the brain. The activated brain becomes ready to focus, learn, regulate emotions, and connect with others. Learning, when supported by recovery, leads to adaptation. Adaptation creates better performance. And every time we move through that cycle, we expand our capacity to meet tomorrow's challenges. That's the Movement Loop. It's not just a framework for understanding exercise. It's a framework for understanding how the brain changes, how we grow, and how human performance is built—one movement at a time. Review and Conclusion: The Movement Loop and Dr. Ratey To review and conclude what we've learned today. Dr. Ratey's interview wasn't simply about why exercise is good for the brain. It was about how movement begins a chain reaction that changes the way we learn, think, and perform. We discovered that: Movement is the input. Every movement sends a signal to the brain and body that it's time to change. Movement activates the brain. Blood flow increases. Neurotransmitters increase. BDNF begins preparing the brain for learning. The activated brain becomes ready. Attention improves. Executive function sharpens. Emotions become easier to regulate. We're even more prepared to connect with other people. That readiness makes learning possible. New neural pathways begin to form. The brain starts building stronger and more efficient networks. But learning doesn't end when the workout ends. Recovery allows the brain to consolidate what movement started. Recovery creates adaptation. Adaptation creates better performance. And every time we complete that cycle, we expand our capacity for whatever challenge comes next. That's the Movement Loop. This is something I've learned through years of interviewing experts, but also through measuring my own health and performance. The days I move first are always the days I think more clearly. I'm more creative with what I write as well as making connections that are important to me in my day to day life. More productive- with the entire day (family and work). More patient (with my kids and family) More present and clear. Movement doesn't solve every problem. But it prepares us to solve problems better, and increases our capacity and productivity. And that's a lesson I'll keep coming back to throughout this season. Coming Next… But there's still one important question we haven't answered. If movement activates the brain... why do some people consistently improve --while others seem to work just as hard without seeing the same results? Is it genetics? Motivation? Discipline? Or is there something happening between today's effort and tomorrow's performance? Next week, in Bonus Episode 2, we'll answer that question. We'll explore what I call The Predictable Performance System and look at years of my own recovery data to understand why recovery isn't simply the opposite of training—it's the bridge between today's habits and tomorrow's performance. Because the difference between predictable and unpredictable results... isn't luck. It's recovery. It's how we are balancing how much we push with how much we are able to rest/recover. Until next time... Keep moving. Protect your recovery. Build your capacity. And continue designing your brain's operating system for lifelong learning, health, leadership, and human performance. Thanks for joining me. I'll see you next week. RESOURCES: Clip 1 Movement and the Brain Dr. Ratey https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bbB4NzsnyQ0 Clip 1 Social Connection Dr. Ratey https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bbB4NzsnyQ0 Phase 1: Regulation & Safety The Foundation Core Question: Is the nervous system safe enough to learn? Everything begins with regulation. Before we can focus, learn, lead, or perform, the brain first asks one fundamental question: Am I safe? Throughout Phase 1, our guests showed us that regulation isn't simply about reducing stress—it's about creating the biological conditions that allow the brain to learn, adapt, and thrive. Together we explored: Baland Jalal – how sleep, curiosity, imagination, and creativity prepare the brain for learning. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/hypnagogic-genius-capture-your-best-ideas-at-the-edge-of-sleep/ Dr. Bruce Perry – why regulation, rhythm, and relationships form the foundation of every healthy nervous system. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/safety-first-why-a-regulated-brain-is-the-key-to-learning/ Dr. Sui Wong – how lifestyle medicine and autonomic balance build lifelong brain resilience. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/your-eyes-the-brain-s-early-warning-system/ Rohan Dixit – how heart rate variability gives us real-time feedback on our ability to regulate stress. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/breathe-to-reset-how-hrv-tech-reveals-hidden-stress/ Dr. Kristen Holmes – how recovery metrics reveal our physiological readiness to perform. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/ Dr. Antonio Zadra – how sleep and dreaming consolidate memories, regulate emotions, and generate insight. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/when-brains-dream-how-sleep-integrates-emotion-insight-and-creativity/ Together these conversations taught us that sleep and stress regulation aren't optional—they're the operating system that allows every higher brain function to work. Phase 2: Motivation & Neurochemistry The Direction Core Question: What moves us into action? Once the brain feels safe, it becomes ready to pursue goals. In Phase 2, we explored the internal chemistry that transforms intention into action. Our experts helped us understand that sustainable motivation isn't about willpower—it's about aligning our beliefs, thoughts, attention, energy, and movement. Together we discovered: Bob Proctor — our beliefs determine the direction of our lives. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/belief-first-the-neuroscience-of-motivation/ Dr. Carolyn Leaf — our thinking literally changes our brain chemistry. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/thoughts-as-biology-how-your-mind-shapes-neurochemistry/ Dr. John Medina — attention determines what the brain encodes and remembers. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/theory-of-mind-the-missing-link-between-attention-reward-and-motivation Dr. Anna Lembke- Dopamine, Motivation and Why the Brain Repeats Behavior https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dopamine-nation-the-pleasure%e2%80%93pain-balance-that-drives-motivation/ Dr. Friederike Fabritius — managing our energy allows high performance to become sustainable. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/fun-fear-focus-closing-the-motivation-loop/ Dr. Chuck Hillman & Paul Zientarski — movement activates the brain, preparing it to learn. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/move-to-learn-how-movement-activates-the-brain-and-fuels-motivation/ By the end of Phase 2, we introduced what became The Motivation Loop, showing how beliefs influence thoughts, thoughts influence actions, actions create results, and results reinforce future beliefs. Phase 3: Movement, Learning & Human Performance The Transformation Core Question: How does movement change the brain—and how does recovery transform that change into performance? Now we're taking the next step. Phase 3 builds on everything we've learned so far. If Phase 1 created a regulated nervous system... If Phase 2 created motivation and direction... Phase 3 explains how the brain and body actually become stronger. Together we've explored this process through conversations with: Dr. Chuck Hillman & Paul Zientarski — why movement activates the brain before learning. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-first-how-a-20%e2%80%91minute-walk-lights-up-the-brain/ Dr. John Ratey — how exercise builds a healthier, younger brain. Dr. Kristen Holmes — why recovery determines adaptation and readiness. Dr. John Medina — how attention transforms movement into lasting learning. Jason Whitrock — how metabolism and cellular energy fuel long-term performance. WHERE WE ARE GOING NEXT Phase 4 — Connection, Emotion & Social Intelligence The Human System Core Question: How do we thrive with other people? The brain didn't evolve in isolation—it evolved through relationships. In Phase 4, we'll explore emotional intelligence, empathy, communication, trust, leadership, and psychological safety to understand how our relationships shape learning, well-being, and performance. Phase 5 — Integration & Human Performance The Complete System Core Question: How do all the systems work together? In our final phase, we'll bring everything together—regulation, motivation, movement, emotion, relationships, learning, and recovery—into one integrated framework. We'll discover how these systems work together to create measurable improvements in our well-being, achievement, leadership, productivity, and results. REFERENCES: [i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 384 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/hypnagogic-genius-capture-your-best-ideas-at-the-edge-of-sleep/ [ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 402 “Phase 3 Intro: How Movement Builds the Brain https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-loop-how-everyday-action-rewires-your-brain-and-boosts-performance/ [iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 403 “How movement Activates the Brain and Learning” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-first-how-a-20%e2%80%91minute-walk-lights-up-the-brain/ [iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 375 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-exercise-primes-the-brain-insights-from-dr-john-rady/ [v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 376 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/move-eat-connect-3-science-backed-keys-to-brain-health-ep-376/ [vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 403 “How movement Activates the Brain and Learning” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-first-how-a-20%e2%80%91minute-walk-lights-up-the-brain/ [vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 390 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/what-gets-measured-gets-improved-sleep-recovery-peak-performance/
AI is transforming the way organizations work, but successful AI adoption starts with understanding the work itself. In this episode of the Performance Matters podcast, Bob Mosher welcomes back Dr. Con Gottfredson to explore the emerging concept of task intelligence and why understanding work at the job-task level is critical for organizations seeking to leverage AI effectively. Together, Bob and Con discuss why many skills-based initiatives have struggled, how task intelligence provides a more practical path forward, and why organizations must move beyond a technology-first approach. They explore how AI can augment human performance, the importance of maintaining the right human-AI balance, and how methodologies like Rapid Workflow Analysis help organizations identify which tasks can be automated, augmented, or require human expertise. A must-listen for L&D leaders, business leaders, and anyone navigating the future of work, AI, and human performance. Listen or download the episode today! Have questions about this content or another resource on the site? Let us know! Use this form to let us know you're interested in scheduling a call with a member of the team. We're always happy to discuss your current, future, or aspirational initiatives in real-time. For more 5 Moments of Need resources, visit our website, join the conversation, and subscribe to this podcast so as not to miss a single episode. Copyright © 2026 by APPLY Synergies, LLC | All Rights Reserved.
Andrea Samadi shares a five-year self-experiment using a WHOOP wearable to track sleep, recovery, movement, and biological age. She reveals how daily low-intensity movement and consistent recovery—not one intense workout—produced lasting improvements in heart rate, recovery scores, and biological age. Andrea distills five lessons: movement prepares the brain, consistency beats intensity, recovery is where adaptation happens, small habits compound over time, and every step is an investment in your future brain. Practical takeaways include walking daily, adding 2–3 strength sessions per week, protecting sleep, and tracking trends instead of perfection. In this Bonus Episode you'll learn: Why recovery matters more than you think. What 1,905 recoveries taught me about human performance. Why consistency beats intensity. How movement changes the brain. How to create lasting biological adaptation. Why every walk is an investment in your future brain. EPISODE BONUS Move Today. Recover Tonight. Younger Tomorrow. Five Years. 1,905 Recoveries. One Lesson That Changed Everything. Welcome Back Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. I'm Andrea Samadi. Over the past seven years, I've had the privilege of interviewing many of the world's leading experts in neuroscience, psychology, learning, leadership, health, and human performance. Throughout Season 16, we've been connecting those conversations into a simple framework I call The Brain's Operating System for Human Performance—a practical way of understanding how the brain and body work together to help us learn better, think more clearly, live healthier, and perform at our highest potential. In Episode 402[i], we introduced The Movement Loop, built around one simple idea: Movement is the input. Adaptation is the process. Performance is the outcome. Then, in Episode 403[ii], Dr. Chuck Hillman helped us understand why movement changes the brain. Every step increases blood flow. Exercise stimulates Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor—BDNF—often called fertilizer for the brain. Movement strengthens the neural networks responsible for learning, memory, attention, and executive function. But after recording those episodes, I found myself asking a different question. What happens when we apply those principles consistently—not for days, weeks, or even months—but for years? Today's bonus episode is my attempt to answer that question. Not from another research study. Not from another interview. And definitely not to give you one more thing to add to your already busy schedule. Instead... I'd like to share a five-year experiment I never realized I was conducting—one that completely changed the way I think about health, movement, recovery, and human performance. Five Years Looking for the Answer When I started wearing a WHOOP device back in April of 2021, just before my fiftieth birthday, I thought I was buying a fitness tracker. I thought it would help me train harder. I thought it would reward intensity. Instead... It spent the next five years teaching me something far more valuable. How to recover. Over those five years I've tracked nearly everything I could measure. Sleep. Movement. Recovery. Resting heart rate. Heart rate variability. VO₂ Max. Biological age. Blood work. Thousands of workouts. And more than 1,905 recoveries. Nearly two thousand mornings of waking up and asking my body the same question. How well did I recover? At first, I didn't really know what I was looking for. I simply assumed the harder I trained... the healthier I'd become. The Mystery Then WHOOP introduced a new metric. WHOOP Age. The first time I looked at it, I honestly couldn't believe what I was seeing. My biological age measured 48.7 years old. I was fifty-five. More than six years younger biologically than chronologically. Of course, my first question wasn't, "That's great." My first question was... Why? What was I doing that created this result? Naturally, I assumed it was my hardest hikes. My toughest strength workouts. The mornings I pushed myself until I was completely exhausted. But that's not what the data showed. Not even close. The biggest contributor wasn't intensity. It was consistency. Daily walks. Steady hikes. Hours spent moving in Heart Rate Zones 1 through 3. The very workouts I used to think "didn't count." Ironically, even today, after finishing a workout, I still catch myself hoping to see more time in Zone 4 or Zone 5. Old beliefs don't disappear overnight. Part of me still believes harder must be better. But five years of data kept telling me a different story. A Belief I Had to Unlearn For most of my life, I believed exercise was supposed to leave me exhausted. If I wasn't completely out of breath... If I wasn't drenched in sweat... If I wasn't barely able to walk back to my car... I assumed I hadn't worked hard enough. Maybe you've felt that way too. We grew up hearing... "No pain, no gain." But neuroscience—and my own data—kept challenging that belief. The movement that felt the easiest... was quietly producing the greatest return. Daily walks. Easy hikes with friends. Walking my dogs along the canal. Consistent aerobic movement. Those weren't "easy days." Those were adaptation days. And slowly, my definition of success began to change. The Moment Everything Changed A few days ago something happened. After nearly five years... and more than 1,905 recoveries... I recorded my highest recovery ever. 98%. For a few moments I celebrated the score. Then something much more meaningful hit me. That number wasn't created overnight. It wasn't the result of one perfect night's sleep. Or one incredible workout. Or one supplement. Or one recovery tool. It represented five years of learning to work with my biology instead of against it. That's when everything finally clicked. Recovery isn't passive. Recovery is where adaptation happens. It's where muscles rebuild. It's where the brain consolidates learning. It's where the nervous system recalibrates. It's where hormones rebalance. It's where your cardiovascular system grows stronger. It's where yesterday's movement becomes tomorrow's performance. Movement starts the conversation. Recovery is where your body answers. The Missing Piece That's when I realized something I wish someone had explained to me years ago. Movement isn't the goal. Recovery isn't even the goal. Adaptation is the goal. Movement is simply the signal that tells your biology... "Build something stronger." Recovery is when your body actually does the work. Adaptation is the result. Performance becomes the evidence. That is The Movement Loop. Move. Recover. Adapt. Perform. One connected system. What My Data Shows When I stopped looking at individual workouts and started looking at years of trends, the story became remarkably clear. My resting heart rate dropped. My recovery improved. My biological age became younger. My weekly movement consistently averaged more than seven hours in Heart Rate Zones 1 through 3. None of those changes happened because of one extraordinary workout. They happened because of thousands of ordinary choices repeated over and over again. That's how biology changes. Quietly. Consistently. Patiently. Five Lessons Five Years and 1,905 Recoveries Taught Me Looking back over nearly five years—and more than 1,905 recoveries—I realize I wasn't simply collecting health data. I was watching my brain and body adapt in real time. Here are the five lessons I wish I had understood when I first started this journey. Lesson 1: Movement prepares the brain. One of the biggest insights from Dr. Chuck Hillman's research is that movement doesn't just strengthen our muscles—it prepares our brains to learn and perform. Every walk increases blood flow. Every hike stimulates Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, or BDNF, helping the brain build and strengthen neural connections. I've noticed this in my own life. On the days I move first, I think more clearly, focus longer, solve problems more easily, and simply show up as a better version of myself. Movement isn't something I do after work anymore. It's how I prepare for my work. Lesson 2: Consistency beats intensity. For years, I believed the hardest workout was the best workout. My data taught me something completely different. The biggest improvements in my health didn't come from one exhausting hike or one intense strength session. They came from showing up every single day. Walking the canal. Taking the dogs out. Choosing another easy hike. Stopping to talk with people on the trails. It took me years to ask one person their name, after seeing them on the trails for over 10 years! Repeating those small decisions (and actions) over and over again. The body doesn't transform because we occasionally do something extraordinary. It transforms because we consistently do the ordinary. Lesson 3: Recovery is where adaptation happens. This may have been the biggest surprise of all. For years, I thought recovery meant taking a break from making progress. Now I understand that recovery is the progress. Recovery is where muscles rebuild. It's where the brain consolidates learning. It's where the nervous system recalibrates. It's where your body responds to the signal that movement created. Without recovery, movement is simply stress. With recovery, movement becomes adaptation. Lesson 4: Small daily habits create extraordinary results. When I recorded my highest recovery ever—98%—(just this week) I realized something important. That number wasn't created by one perfect night of sleep. It wasn't one workout. It wasn't one supplement. It wasn't one infrared sauna session. It represented thousands of small decisions repeated consistently over five years. Morning sunlight. Walking. Strength training. Prioritizing sleep. Breathwork. Meditation. Recovery. None of those habits seem remarkable on their own. Together, they completely changed my biology. And then I was able to create PREDICTABLE results with recovery, once I fully understood it. Lesson 5: Every step is an investment in your future brain. This may be the most important lesson of all. Most of us exercise because we want to look better or feel better today. But neuroscience tells us something even more powerful. Every walk you're taking today is helping build the brain you'll rely on years from now. Every time you move, you're strengthening the systems that support attention, memory, emotional regulation, cardiovascular health, and resilience. You may not notice those changes tomorrow. I certainly didn't. It took me nearly five years—and 1,905 recoveries—to truly appreciate what my body had been quietly building all along. That's why I no longer think of movement as exercise. I think of it as one of the greatest investments I can make in my future health, my future brain, and the quality of my life. Because every step you take today is a vote for the person you're becoming tomorrow. Practical Application If you're wondering where to start... Start walking. Walk before work. Walk after dinner. Walk with your family. Walk with your dog. Strength train two or three times each week. It doesn't take a lot to see noticeable gains. Protect your sleep. Track trends instead of chasing perfection. Then tomorrow morning ask yourself one simple question. Not... "How hard should I train today?" Instead... How can I move today? One question. One decision. Repeated consistently. That's how change begins. Review and Conclusion As we wrap up this bonus episode, let's step back and look at what we've learned throughout this first part of Phase 3. Movement prepares the brain. Recovery builds the body. Adaptation changes our biology. Performance becomes the evidence. Five years ago, I thought movement was the goal. Today I know better. Movement is the signal. Recovery is the builder. Adaptation is the transformation (that we can see) Performance is the evidence (or what we were aiming for in the first place). After nearly 1,905 recoveries, I finally understand why recovery matters. Not because it helps us rest. Because it helps us become. Looking back, I wasn't simply collecting health data. I was watching neuroscience unfold in real time. The greatest improvements in my health didn't come from my hardest workouts. They came from thousands of ordinary decisions repeated consistently over time. We can go back to our early episodes[iii] to hear the importance of repetition. That's how human performance is built. Not through one breakthrough moment. But through daily choices that quietly reshape the brain, strengthen the body, and prepare us for whatever comes next. So wherever you're listening today... Whether you're heading out for a walk... Driving home from work... Finishing a workout... Or simply deciding how you'll move tomorrow... Remember this. Every step is a vote for your future self. Move today. Recover tonight. Adapt tomorrow. Live younger tomorrow. Until next time... Keep moving. Keep learning. Keep adapting. Because every step you take today is helping build a healthier, stronger, and more resilient version of yourself tomorrow. REFERENCES: [i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 402 “Phase 3 Intro: How Movement Builds the Brain https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-loop-how-everyday-action-rewires-your-brain-and-boosts-performance/ [ii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 403 “How movement Activates the Brain and Learning” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-first-how-a-20%e2%80%91minute-walk-lights-up-the-brain/ [iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 38 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/assistant-coach-to-the-winnipeg-jets-todd-woodcroft-on-the-daily-grind-in-the-nhl/
Why do so many high achievers burn out? Most of us think recovery is what happens after the work is done. We push through the week, take care of everyone else, and tell ourselves we'll slow down later. But according to Dr. Kristen Holmes, Global Head of Human Performance at WHOOP, recovery isn't separate from high performance. It's an essential part of it. In this conversation, I sit down with Kristen to unpack the science behind sustainable high performance and why recovery plays a much bigger role than most of us realize. We talk about why sleep consistency matters more than sleep duration, the habits that have the biggest impact on our energy, and how to stop running on empty. By the end of this conversation, you'll have a new way of thinking about recovery and practical strategies to put into practice right away. Pre-order Kristen's new book, Aligned. More from Molly: Get Molly's latest book, Dynamic Drive Website: mollyfletcher.com
In episode 262, Coffey talks with Randy Anderson about the critical differentiators for human performers in an AI-driven workplace. They discuss AI's inevitability and its impact on task elimination versus full job replacement; the enduring human advantage in relational and interpersonal transactions that AI cannot replicate; emotional intelligence as a two-sided competency — reading others and maintaining self-awareness; nonverbal communication, microexpressions, and the limits of virtual interaction for building culture; the case for renaming "soft skills" as core skills or power skills given their foundational value; generational deficits in interpersonal development worsened by COVID, remote learning, and screen-based communication; how employers can purposefully structure learning tracks, mentoring, and stretch assignments to develop core skills alongside technical ones; top employer-identified skill gaps from a Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce talent survey — emotional intelligence, leadership, global mindset, and adaptability; AI-generated cover letters undermining candidate credibility, including a case where AI reproduced a hiring manager's own quotes; and time-windowed team skill development as a practical organizational strategy for building interpersonal competency at scale. For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP262 Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com. If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com. About our Guest: Randy Anderson is a self-declared mercenary in the war on employee disengagement and lost productivity. He spent 20 years in sales and management before founding E3 Professional Trainers in 2005. Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to work with virtually every type and size of business in almost every industry.Now, through keynote presentations, customized training, and personal coaching, he delivers strategies to help individuals, teams, and entire organizations become more engaged in their work, better equipped to do it, and to feel empowered to experience greater fulfillment in life, both personallyand professionally. Randy Anderson can be reached at Your Website: e3professionaltrainers.com LinkedIn: Randy Anderson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/randyandersontrainer) Facebook: E3 Professional Trainers (https://www.facebook.com/E3ProfessionalTrainers/) Twitter/X: E3ProfTrainers (https://twitter.com/e3proftrainers) YouTube: E3 Professional Trainers (https://www.youtube.com/user/e3protrainers) About Mike Coffey: Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business' small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association. Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year. Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas' 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. Mike and his very patient wife of 29 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth. Learning Objectives:Distinguish between the tasks AI will replace and the human relational capabilities that will remain differentiators for high performers. Define emotional intelligence as a dual competency — accurately reading others and maintaining self-awareness — and explain why both sides matter in workplace interactions. Design intentional learning tracks, mentoring programs, and structured assignments to develop core interpersonal skills in employees who lack natural exposure or prior coaching.
We often search for ways to boost our energy, but the true frontier of health lies in Quantum Wellness. In this conversation, host Zach Gurick sits down with Ashley Grace, the Chief Marketing Officer of Igniton, to explore how energy frequencies can enhance biological performance. They discuss a new scientific process that binds subatomic energy to natural ingredients, sparking notable improvements in memory and deep sleep. You'll hear how this groundbreaking technology helps lower key inflammatory markers by nearly thirty percent. Discover how these rapid physical changes can shift your daily focus, mental clarity, and long-term healthspan. It's time to rethink what's possible when we optimize our bodies at a cellular level.The information presented in Fully Alive is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before making changes to your health regimen. Guests' opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the podcast host, production team, or sponsors.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, & share! https://www.shellpoint.org/podcast/
Are you fed up of going to the gym, and would rather have the gym come to you?This week, the Home Squad are here to talk all things home gyms!Joining Andrea to discuss is John Belton, owner of No.17 PT, Human Performance and Wellness Coach and Kate O'Driscoll, (@victorianrathmines) & co-host of ‘Rip it up: The Renovations Podcast'.
On this episode, WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist, Dr. Kristen Holmes sits down with exercise scientist Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple for a refreshing, evidence-based conversation that cuts through some common myths in fitness. Together, Dr. Holmes and Dr. Colenso-Semple unpack how social media has fueled misinformation around hormones, menopause, menstrual cycles, strength training, and recovery.Dr. Colenso-Semple challenges popular narratives around cycle syncing, hormone optimization, and sex-specific training. The episode makes the case that while men and women are biologically different, the fundamental principles of building strength, improving fitness, and maintaining health are remarkably similar. The discussion also explores hormone therapy, hormonal birth control, testosterone, Zone 2 training, and why consistency is the true path to long-term results.Whether you're new to exercise or a seasoned athlete, this conversation offers practical, empowering advice rooted in high-quality human research rather than hype. If you've ever wondered whether you're "doing it wrong" because of your hormones, this episode will leave you feeling informed, confident, and ready to focus on what actually matters.(00:41) Who is Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple(01:24) The Misinformation Around Fitness(03:48) Understanding Fitness Facts(06:50) The 3 Biggest Fitness Myths(08:29) Addressing Fears Around Training in Perimenopause(17:36) What Habits Work and What's Just Marketing?(19:19) Improving Bone Health and Avoiding Fracture Risk(23:26) Does Hormonal Birth Control Affect Your Training? (29:23) "Women Are Not Small Men"(32:56) Should You Be Cycle Syncing Your Training(38:49) The Secret To Strength Gains & Achieving Body Composition Goals(44:06) Is Resistance Training The Key To Longevity? (46:05) How To Fit Movement Into Your Busy Schedule(48:55) The Important Role of Recovery on Fitness Gains(55:02) Should You Be Cycle Syncing Your Training?(01:01:35) Risks of High Testosterone For Training(01:10:24) Are There Any Fitness Shortcuts?(01:15:40) Combatting Misinformation OnlinesFollow Dr. Lauren Colenso-SempleInstagramWebsiteSupport the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn
Returning to the On Track & Field Podcast is endurance athlete and nutrition expert Brady Holmer. Armed with a Master's degree in Human Performance, Brady has built a reputation for turning cutting-edge sports science into practical advice athletes can actually use. We discuss the latest research on nutrition, recovery, VO₂ max, longevity, and the training methods that deliver real results.You can find Brady here - https://www.runlongrunhealthy.com/
What if the data you're obsessing over is the very thing capping how far you can go? In this episode of The Game Changing Attorney Podcast, Michael Mogill sits down with Andy Walshe, the human performance leader behind Red Bull's high-performance program and the Felix Baumgartner stratosphere jump. They dig into why the metrics everyone chases can only take you so far, and why the traits that truly separate elite performers (character, creativity, how you show up when it's hard) are the ones almost no one is actually training. It's a look under the hood of what elite performance really requires when the stakes are highest. Here's what you'll learn: How character, not metrics, can be the real dividing line between good and elite How to train creativity as a skill instead of treating it as a gift you're born with What it takes to perform under extreme pressure when everything is on the line If you've been optimizing the measurable and ignoring the human, this is your wake-up call. (00:00:00) Introduction (00:02:40) From athlete to performance coach (00:03:31) Why Red Bull obsesses over performance (00:05:38) What makes elite performers special (00:07:18) Not everything can be measured (00:09:27) Training character and creativity (00:12:00) The Felix Baumgartner jump (00:20:32) Why the Enhanced Games flopped (00:23:12) Training under manufactured fear (00:27:05) The right dose of stress (00:30:00) What cold plunging really trains (00:32:09) No secrets: the 70-20-10 rule (00:36:55) The trait that predicts greatness (00:39:24) Do elite traits cross fields? (00:41:31) Ego, humility, and luck (00:45:47) What it means to be a game changer ---- Links & Resources: Andy Walshe Liminal Collective Red Bull Stratos Felix Baumgartner Joe Kittinger Enhanced Games Australian Institute of Sport ---- Learn what sustainable growth can look like for your firm at crispcoach.com. ---- Do you love this podcast and want to see more game changing content? Subscribe to our YouTube channel. ---- Past guests on The Game Changing Attorney Podcast include David Goggins, John Morgan, Alex Hormozi, Randi McGinn, Kim Scott, Chris Voss, Kevin O'Leary, Laura Wasser, John Maxwell, Mark Lanier, Robert Greene, and many more. ---- If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like: 461. Mastering Biological Fundamentals for Elite Performance with Dr. Kristen Holmes 338. Will Ahmed - From Stress to Success: Optimizing the Entrepreneurial Journey 298. Rich Diviney - The Fundamental Traits Navy SEALs Use to Excel
Send us Fan MailWhat shapes a world-leading scientist?Is it intelligence?Great mentors?Opportunity?Or simply an insatiable curiosity that never stops asking why?In Episode 489 of the Leave Your Mark Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Keith Baar, one of the world's most respected molecular exercise physiologists, whose work has transformed our understanding of muscle growth, tendon adaptation, rehabilitation, and human performance.As Professor of Molecular Exercise Physiology at UC Davis—and soon to begin the next chapter of his career at McMaster University—Keith has spent decades translating molecular biology into practical strategies for clinicians, therapists, coaches, and elite sporting organizations worldwide.But this conversation isn't about signalling pathways or collagen synthesis.It's about the journey that created the scientist.We explore the mentors who shaped him, why curiosity has always driven his career, how his relationship with his wife Barb influenced many of life's biggest decisions, and the leadership philosophy that built one of the world's most respected research laboratories around the simple idea of conducting world-class science in a family environment.Along the way, we discuss why science should never be about proving yourself right, how diverse experiences lead to better discoveries, the challenges facing research today, and why asking better questions is often more important than finding quick answers.Of course, we couldn't resist diving into some of Keith's latest work on tendon adaptation, including the exciting potential of low-load, long-duration isometrics (3LD) and what his research may mean for rehabilitation and performance practitioners everywhere.This is an episode about science.But even more, it's an episode about the people behind the science.I think you're going to enjoy this one.If you liked this EP, please take the time to rate and comment, share with a friend, and connect with us on social channels IG @Kingopain, TW @BuiltbyScott, LI+FB Scott Livingston. You can find all things LYM at www.LYMLab.com, download your free Life Lab Starter Kit today and get busy living https://lymlab.com/free-lym-lab-starter/Please take the time to visit and connect with our sponsors, they are an essential part of our success:www.ReconditioningHQ.comwww.FreePainGuide.com
Send us Fan MailAaron and Peaches sit down to talk Blue Angels flyovers, testosterone testing, military medicine, height-to-waist standards, and why the military has to get serious about health before people break.The episode starts with the Blue Angels beach flyover debate and whether something can be technically questionable while still being completely awesome. Then the guys get into the bigger conversation around the Department of War pushing testosterone checks for men over 30, why the military medical system has resisted basic hormone testing for years, and how operator syndrome, traumatic brain injuries, cortisol dysfunction, vitamin D deficiency, and low free testosterone can wreck performance and mental health.Aaron talks through his own fight to get blood work done, what the military missed, and why private-sector care finally helped him understand the difference between total testosterone and free testosterone.The conversation also hits height-to-waist standards, fat bodies in uniform, why some people will get flagged unfairly, and why most people need to stop making excuses. The bottom line: fitness is not just about looking good in uniform. It affects mental health, cognitive performance, readiness, durability, and who you become after the military.Check out Tasty Gains:TastyGains.comRegister for Operator Training Summit:OperatorTrainingSummit.comChapters:00:00 - Intro, Tasty Gains, and Operator Training Summit03:02 - Blue Angels Flyover Controversy03:39 - Unsafe vs. Inappropriate05:00 - Why Professionals Change the Risk Equation06:59 - Was the Flyover Necessary?08:22 - Pensacola, Nellis, and Airshow Culture09:20 - Testosterone Testing in the Military10:37 - What the Headlines Are Missing11:14 - Operator Syndrome and Low Testosterone12:11 - Fighting the Military Medical System12:55 - Vitamin D Deficiency in the Military14:34 - The Problem With “Normal” Testosterone Ranges16:00 - Trying to Raise Testosterone Naturally17:14 - Total Testosterone vs. Free Testosterone18:08 - TBI, Free Test, and Feeling Broken18:57 - Whoop Blood Work and Better Data19:19 - Breaking Down Institutional Resistance20:12 - Why This Could Lead to Better Screening21:02 - How the Referral System Fails People22:08 - Why Baseline Testing Matters22:34 - Trauma Medicine vs. Clinical Medicine23:55 - Military Medicine, COVID, and Bad Advice26:35 - Readiness Pressure and Medical Liability27:30 - SSRIs, Mental Health, and Missed Questions29:26 - The Military Health System Problem30:33 - Women, Hormones, and HRT30:42 - What to Ask Before Accepting Medication31:29 - Akron Bar Fight Story34:46 - Air Force Height-to-Waist Ratio35:11 - Body Composition Standards Come Back Around36:52 - Old BMI Standards and Fat Boy Programs37:19 - Height and Weight Charts39:41 - Peaches Tests the Calculator41:16 - When the Standard Misses Body Type42:40 - Trent's Monster Habit43:29 - Strategic Energy Drinks43:56 - Ten-Year-Old Crushes the Army PT Test45:30 - Kids, Discipline, and Internet Boundaries47:34 - Coaching Kids Through Hard Things48:25 - Wrestling Coach Motivation50:38 - Height-to-Waist and Job Performance51:40 - Human Performance and Mental Health52:34 - Obesity, COVID, and Comorbidities53:54 - Water, Sunlight, Nutrition, and Fitness55:26 - What People Cut First When Life Gets Busy55:42 - Sleep as a Performance Enhancer56:43 - Why Fitness Improves Mental Health58:26 - Confidence, Attraction, and Looking Better59:45 - Extrinsic Motivation Still Counts01:01:12 - Final Thoughts and Members-Only PreviewSupport the showJoin this channel to get access to perks: HEREBuzzsprout Subscription page: HERERegister for our Operator Training Summit: OperatorTrainingSummit.comFind an Air Force Recruiter: AirForce.comCollabs:Ones Ready - OnesReady.com 18A Fitness - Promo Code: ONESREADY ATACLete - Follow the URL (no promo code): ATACLeteDanger Close Apparel - Promo Code: ONESREADYDFND Apparel...
Welcome back to Season 16 of the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. I'm Andrea Samadi, and this is where we bridge neuroscience, social and emotional learning, and human performance so we can create measurable improvements in our well-being, achievement, leadership, productivity, and results. In this episode 403 The Movement Loop: How Movement Activates the Brain for Learning, Adaptation & Performance we will cover: ✔ Why movement is the biological input that prepares the brain for learning, adaptation, and performance. ✔ How Dr. Chuck Hillman's groundbreaking neuroscience research explains what happens inside the brain during and immediately after exercise. ✔ Why even one bout of physical activity can improve attention, executive function, and learning readiness. ✔ How Paul Zientarski translated neuroscience into practice through Naperville Central High School's internationally recognized Zero Hour PE Program. ✔ The science behind brain activation, neuroplasticity, positive stress, and cognitive reserve. ✔ Why movement isn't a break from learning—it's preparation for learning. ✔ How teachers, coaches, parents, and workplace leaders can use movement to improve focus, decision-making, creativity, and performance. ✔ How to apply the Movement Loop in everyday life using practical strategies you can begin today. ✔ Why movement is the input, adaptation is the process, and performance is the result. If you're just joining us, Season 16 explores Phase 3 of the Brain's Operating System for Human Performance—the Movement Loop. This season asks one central question: How does movement change the brain, adaptation change the body, and together create measurable improvements in performance? If you'd like the full overview of the five-phase framework, I encourage you to start with Episode 402. In Episode 402[i], we introduced Phase 3 of the Brain's Operating System for Human Performance—where we introduced The Movement Loop. We discovered one powerful idea. Movement is the input. When you move, your body sends a powerful biological signal to the brain that says: "Prepare. Activate. Adapt." Adaptation is the process. With movement, repetition, and recovery, the brain and body strengthen, rewire, and become more efficient. Performance is the output. The changes become visible in everyday life—clearer thinking, better decisions, stronger health, and improved performance. Then the loop begins again. Today we're asking the next question. Why does movement come first? Not simply because exercise is good for our bodies. But because movement is one of the most powerful biological signals we can send to the brain. Before we can focus... Before we can learn... Before we can adapt... The brain must first be activated. That's why movement isn't the outcome. It's the beginning. When we first interviewed Dr. Chuck Hillman on Episode 123[ii], (back in April 2021) I wanted to understand how his neuroscience research inspired Paul Zientarski's revolutionary Zero Hour PE Program at Naperville Central High School. It was Naperville's extraordinary performance on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) that caught the eye of Dr. John Ratey. Naperville District 203 entered the international comparison as if it were its own "country" and ranked #1 in the world in science and #6 in the world in math. Those results made Dr. Ratey ask, "What are they doing differently?" That question ultimately led him to Naperville, (IL) where he discovered Zientarksi's Zero Hour PE initiative and made it the opening case study in his book Spark. We will cover this story on our next episode Then years later, we revisited that conversation in Episode 397[iii] through the lens of motivation—exploring how movement increases engagement and helps us want to move more. But looking back through the lens of Phase 3, I realized I had been asking the wrong question. The bigger question isn't whether movement motivates us. The bigger question is: What happens inside the brain the moment we begin to move? That's the question we're answering today. And it's the reason movement sits at the beginning of the Brain's Operating System for Human Performance. Let's begin where every performance story begins... with movement. As we begin Phase 3, Dr. Chuck Hillman's research helps us understand why movement is the first step in the Movement Loop. In our interview, he mentioned that his lab has consistently demonstrated that even a single bout of physical activity can improve attention, cognition, and academic performance. But what fascinated me most wasn't simply that exercise works. It was why it works. Listen carefully as Dr. Hillman explains how movement acts as a positive biological stressor that prepares the brain for learning. EP 403 — Clip 1 Summary Movement is the First Signal As we begin Phase 3 of the Brain's Operating System, the first question is simple: Why does movement come first? Dr. Chuck Hillman has spent his career studying how physical activity changes the brain—from childhood through older adulthood. His research doesn't just focus on exercise, but on understanding how different life experiences shape brain health across the lifespan. One insight from our conversation completely changed how I think about movement. Dr. Hillman explained that even a single session of exercise can improve attention, cognition, and academic performance in children. His team is now studying why that happens, exploring how exercise acts as a positive stressor that activates biological pathways supporting brain function. But what struck me even more was why he chose to study children in the first place. Rather than waiting until someone reaches their 60s and begins experiencing cognitive decline, his goal is to help children build a stronger brain from the very beginning—to create what he calls a cognitive reserve that may protect brain health throughout life. That idea captures exactly what Phase 3 is all about. Movement isn't simply something we do to stay fit. It's one of the earliest investments we can make in the future health and performance of our brain. ______ This is the first piece of the Movement Loop. Movement isn't valuable because we eventually become fitter. This is what many of us used to think? I can't be alone in this…I used to move for fitness alone. Until I studied the brain…and learned that: It's valuable because it immediately changes the state of the brain. Before learning improves... Before memory improves... Before performance improves... The brain has to be activated. That's exactly what movement does. Key Takeaways from Dr. Hillman There are three ideas I'd like all of us to remember from this first clip. Movement is Information The Neuroscience Every movement you make sends information throughout your nervous system. As your muscles contract, they don't just move your body—they communicate with your brain. Your heart pumps faster, blood flow increases, oxygen and glucose are delivered more efficiently, and neurons begin communicating more actively. Movement also changes your brain's neurochemistry. Exercise increases the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, which help regulate attention, motivation, mood, and learning. At the same time, it stimulates the production of growth factors such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which supports neuroplasticity—the brain's ability to form and strengthen new neural connections. That's why I like to think of movement as sending a message to the brain: "Wake up. Pay attention. Get ready to learn." Movement isn't simply burning calories. It's providing your brain with the biological conditions it needs to perform at its best. Stress Isn't Always Harmful The Neuroscience When we hear the word stress, we usually think of chronic stress—too much cortisol, too little recovery, and the negative effects that follow. But the brain actually needs short, manageable challenges to become stronger. Exercise is an example of what's often called eustress, or positive stress. When you exercise, your body briefly increases stress hormones like cortisol and activates your sympathetic nervous system. At the same time, it stimulates beneficial signaling molecules and growth factors that help the brain adapt. Dr. Hillman's research explores how these temporary changes—including biomarkers like cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase—may help explain why even a single bout of exercise improves attention and cognition. The important point is that the stress is temporary. When it's followed by recovery, your brain and body adapt. Without recovery, stress becomes harmful. With recovery, stress becomes the signal that drives growth. That's why adaptation sits in the middle of the Movement Loop. The challenge isn't the goal. The adaptation is. Activation Comes Before Performance The Neuroscience One of the biggest misconceptions about learning is that we can simply decide to pay attention. The brain doesn't work that way. Before the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for focus, planning, decision-making, and executive function—can perform well, it must first be activated. Movement helps create that activation. Exercise increases cerebral blood flow, raises arousal to an optimal level, and improves communication across large-scale brain networks involved in attention and cognitive control. Think of it like warming up an orchestra before a concert. Before the musicians can perform together, they first need to tune their instruments. Movement helps the brain tune itself. That's why research consistently shows improvements in attention and executive function immediately after moderate physical activity. Performance doesn't begin when you sit down to work. Performance begins the moment you prepare your brain. That's why movement sits at the beginning of the Movement Loop. One final thought Movement isn't magic. It changes the brain because it changes the brain's biology. It increases blood flow. It changes neurochemistry. It activates neural networks. It stimulates neuroplasticity. And when those changes are repeated over time—and supported by recovery—they become adaptation. That's why movement is the input. Adaptation is the process. Performance is the result. TIPS to IMPLEMENT So what can we do with this research? Here are three simple ways to put the Movement Loop into practice this week. ✅ 1. Move with purpose. Before asking your brain to perform... Prepare it. Take a 10–20 minute walk. Ride your bike. Do a short workout. Climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Don't think of movement as taking time away from your work. Think of it as the first step toward doing your best work. I always park my car at the back of the parking lot, not afraid add bits of movement into the day. ✅ 2. Prepare the brain before expecting learning. Whether you're a parent... A teacher... A coach... Or a leader... Create opportunities to move before asking people to think. Movement isn't a reward after learning. It's preparation before learning. I discovered this one early on with this podcast. I can't focus on this topic, without moving first. ✅ 3. Start measuring brain performance—not just physical performance. The next time you move, don't just ask: "How many calories did I burn?" Ask: Did I think more clearly today? Did I focus more easily? Did I feel more energized? Did I recover better tonight? Am I becoming more resilient? Those are the real returns on your investment. Movement for me, is at the root of each of these questions. If I lacked movement (and sometimes I can't fit it in) I'll notice it show up in one of these questions, and know how important it is to get it back on track. Final Reflection Remember... Movement is the input. It's what we do. Every step you take sends a message to your brain: "Prepare. Activate. Adapt." The more consistently you send that signal, the more opportunities your brain and body have to change. Over time, those changes become visible. You think more clearly. You learn more effectively. You recover more efficiently. You perform at a higher level. But here's the part I find most fascinating. When I look at the Movement Loop... I don't stop at Performance. I look at the final circle. Confidence. Because confidence is what keeps the loop alive. I'll be the first to say I can't always do this. Something gets in the way. It's not always easy to move. Some days we're busy. Some days we're tired. Some days we simply don't feel like it. But every time you complete the loop, you collect another piece of evidence. "I showed up." "I felt better afterward." "I handled that challenge differently." "I'm becoming stronger than I was yesterday." Those moments become evidence. Evidence builds confidence. And confidence makes it easier to begin again tomorrow. That's how lasting change happens. Not through one workout. Not through one perfect week. But by repeating the loop. Again. And again. And again. Because every movement today is an investment in the person you're becoming tomorrow. Movement is the input. Adaptation is the process. Performance is the result. And confidence is what inspires us to begin again. Clip 2 Summary Brain Activation Creates Readiness to Learn Paul Zientarski explains how Naperville Central High School achieved remarkable academic results through its Zero Hour PE Program and the use of heart rate monitoring. His work around getting students to move was inspired by Dr. Hillman's research. In this clip, Paul Zientarski describes how Dr. Chuck Hillman's research transformed physical education from something schools did for physical health into something they could use to improve learning itself. The research that ignited him showed that after just 20 minutes of walking, students demonstrated measurable increases in brain activation and performed better on cognitive tasks. For Paul, this wasn't simply evidence that exercise works. It explained why movement belongs at the beginning of the school day. Movement wasn't taking time away from learning. It was preparing the brain to learn. Looking at this through the lens of the Movement Loop, we can now see what was happening biologically. Movement activated the brain. An activated brain was better able to pay attention. Better attention improved learning. Repeated learning created adaptation. And over time, those adaptations translated into stronger academic and life performance. That's why movement is the first step in Phase 3. Key Takeaways ✔ 1. Brain activation is the bridge between movement and performance. Movement doesn't improve learning—or performance—directly. It first changes the brain into a state that's ready to focus, solve problems, make decisions, and learn. Whether you're in a classroom, on the athletic field, or leading a team at work, performance begins with brain activation. ✔ 2. Readiness comes before instruction/teaching/learning. One of Paul Zientarski's greatest insights was that not every student needed more movement. Sometimes they needed more recovery. By monitoring students' heart rates, he learned to recognize when a student was physiologically ready to learn and when the brain and body needed time to recover. That's a lesson for all of us. Teachers can observe energy before beginning a lesson. Coaches can balance challenge with recovery. Leaders can recognize when their teams need a reset before asking for peak performance. The question isn't simply, "What am I teaching?" It's, "Are people ready to learn?" ✔ 3. Small actions create lasting adaptation. One walk. One movement break. One active lesson. One walking meeting. None of these seem significant on their own. But repeated consistently, they become the biological signals that drive adaptation. Small actions, repeated often, create lasting change. ✔ 4. Performance begins long before the moment that matters. A student's success doesn't begin when they open the exam. An athlete's success doesn't begin when the whistle blows. A leader's success doesn't begin when the meeting starts. Performance begins much earlier— when we prepare the brain to perform. ✔ 5. Movement isn't a break from work. It's preparation for better work. Whether you're teaching a lesson... Coaching a team... Leading a meeting... Or solving a complex problem... Movement should be viewed as part of the performance process—not time taken away from it. Tips to Implement Prepare the brain before expecting performance. Before teaching... Before coaching... Before presenting... Before solving difficult problems... Ask one question: "Is the brain ready to perform?" Sometimes the best way to improve performance is to begin with five to ten minutes of purposeful movement. Build movement into the rhythm of the day. Instead of viewing movement as a separate activity, make it part of how you work and learn. Teachers can begin lessons with movement. Coaches can use dynamic warm-ups with a cognitive focus. Leaders can replace one seated meeting each week with a walking meeting. Movement becomes the signal that says, "It's time to focus." Balance challenge with recovery. Paul didn't simply encourage students to move more. He also recognized when they needed recovery. High performance isn't created by constant effort. It's created by alternating challenge with recovery. That's true in classrooms. It's true in sports. And it's true in the workplace. Think beyond fitness. Don't ask, "How do I fit exercise into my day?" Instead ask, "How can movement improve everything I do afterward?" That one shift changes movement from another task on your calendar... into the first step toward better thinking, better learning, better leadership, and better performance. Closing Reflection Every time we move... We send a message to the brain. "Prepare. Activate. Adapt." That's why movement isn't just something we do for our bodies. It's one of the most practical performance tools available to teachers, coaches, leaders, parents, and anyone who wants to think more clearly, learn more effectively, and perform at a higher level. Because in the end... Movement is the input. (What we do.) Adaptation is the process. (How the brain and body change.) Performance is the result. (What we're capable of becoming.) Paul Zientarski didn't change physical education at Naperville HS. He changed the purpose of physical education. Instead of asking, "How do we build fitter students?" he helped us ask, "How do we build brains that are ready to learn?" EP 403 Review and Conclusion As we review and close out this episode, I'd like to leave you with one final thought. When we first interviewed Dr. Chuck Hillman, I was fascinated by what exercise did for the brain. When we interviewed Paul Zientarski, I was inspired by how he translated that research into a school that changed lives. But looking back through the lens of Phase 3, I realize they were teaching us something even bigger. They were teaching us where human performance begins. Not with talent. Not with intelligence. Not with motivation. It begins with a biological signal. Movement. Every step you take... Every walk... Every workout... Every hike... Every time you choose to move... You're telling your brain: "Prepare. Activate. Adapt." That's the first instruction your brain receives. From there, everything else becomes possible. Movement activates the brain. An activated brain pays attention. Attention makes learning possible. Learning creates adaptation. Adaptation improves performance. And performance builds confidence. Confidence is what inspires us to move again tomorrow. That's the Movement Loop. A Personal Journey This season has become personal for me. For years, I interviewed experts and shared their research. Over the past year, I began testing these ideas (their research) in my own life. Not to become a better athlete. Not to chase perfect numbers on my wearable device (as much as I would like to have them). But to see whether the neuroscience actually showed up in everyday life. It did. The more consistently I moved... The more consistently I recovered... The more my brain and body adapted. My recovery improved. My resting heart rate dropped. My hikes became easier. My thinking became clearer. Those weren't isolated improvements. They were evidence that the Movement Loop was working. And with every small improvement... my confidence grew. Not because someone told me I was improving. Because I could see it. I could measure it. I could feel it. That confidence became more than the result of movement. It became something I began carrying into other areas of my life. Into my work. Into my relationships. Into the challenges I was willing to take on. And that's when I realized something... Confidence doesn't end the Movement Loop. It becomes the beginning of another part of the Brain's Operating System. But... that's a conversation for another episode. Your challenge for the week So before our next episode, I'd like to leave you with a simple challenge. Don't focus on changing your life overnight. Just begin the loop. Tomorrow morning... Before work... Before studying... Before an important conversation... Move. Even if it's just for ten or twenty minutes. Then ask yourself one question: How did that movement prepare my brain today? Start paying attention. Notice your focus. Notice your energy. Notice how you think. Because once you begin looking for the changes... You'll start seeing them everywhere. Write down what you notice…because if you don't write things down, you won't remember that the change occurred. Looking ahead In our next episode, we'll continue exploring Phase 3 with one of the pioneers in this field, Dr. John Ratey, author of Spark. If Dr. Hillman showed us that movement activates the brain... Dr. Ratey helps us understand why exercise has been called "Miracle-Gro for the brain" and how movement literally changes the brain's ability to learn, adapt, and grow. We'll continue building the Movement Loop... one step at a time. Until next time... Remember... Movement is the input. It's what we do. Adaptation is the process. It's how the brain and body change. Performance is the result. It's the measurable improvement we experience in our thinking, learning, health, leadership, and daily lives. And perhaps most importantly... Confidence is what keeps the loop alive. Because every step you take today is building the brain you'll depend on tomorrow. By the end of this season, my hope is that we don't just understand the neuroscience of human performance—we put it into practice. That we begin moving with purpose. That we notice how our brain and body respond. That we embrace adaptation as part of the process. And that we experience measurable improvements in our thinking, learning, health, leadership, and everyday performance. I'm Andrea Samadi, and this has been the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. I'll see you next time. EP 403: How did movement prepare my brain today? EP 404: How did today's movement help my brain learn? EP 405: How did recovery help my brain adapt? EP 406: How did attention improve my performance? EP 407: How will I keep the loop going? RESOURCES: Full interview Dr. Chuck Hillman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ip5s2iDFLE&list=PLb5Z3cA_mnKhiYc5glhacO9k9WTrSgjzW&index=88 Full interview Paul Zientarski https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHYNEhxkxfE Paul Zientarski's clip https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DmtkP_licdA REFERENCES: [i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 402 “Phase 3 Intro: How Movement Builds the Brain https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-loop-how-everyday-action-rewires-your-brain-and-boosts-performance/ [ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 123 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/northeastern-university-professor-chuck-hillman-phd-on-the-impact-of-exercise-on-the-brain-and-learning/ [iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 397 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/move-to-learn-how-movement-activates-the-brain-and-fuels-motivation/
Welcome back to the WHOOP Podcast's Science of Human Performance Series! On this week's episode, WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist, Dr. Kristen Holmes, sits down with WHOOP SVP of Research, Algorithms, and Data, Emily Capodilupo, to explore the science behind the WHOOP Recovery Score. Emily explains the progression of the recovery algorithm, from the company's origin to the supporting research that supports it today. Dr. Holmes and Emily identify the key metrics, like heart rate variability, resting heart rate, and sleep performance, that impact your recovery the most. Each physiological signal tracked by WHOOP helps to predict your body's readiness to adapt to the stressors of the day, boosting injury prevention, immune health, and decision-making. This episode is your essential guide to improving and understanding your recovery. (00:00) Recovery 101: How WHOOP Looks At Recovery(00:58) The Origin of The WHOOP Recovery Score(01:32) What Is The Overtraining Curve?(05:08) Adaptive versus Maladaptive Stress(07:49) Balancing Strain and Recovery (08:18) Recovery for Everyone(10:48) How Recovery Improves Sleep, Immunity, and Mood(15:44) HRV: How Recovery Impacts The Nervous System(21:04) Why Your Recovery Is Low(28:45) Why Recovery Matters For Performance(29:53) The Relationship Between Sleep and Recovery(31:50) Treating Recovery as a Lifestyle(33:21) Strain Coach Explained(40:26) Is A Solid Recovery Routine The Secret To Muscle Growth? (47:07) How Your Recovery Is Measured(49:52) The Correlation Between Recovery, HRV, and Mental HealthSupport the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn
Why do you keep returning to the same level after making progress? This episode explores human performance, identity, resistance, and the complacent zone. Backsliding Away There is a strange frustration that shows up when you know you are capable of more, but your life keeps snapping back into the same familiar pattern. You make progress. You build momentum. You get closer to the thing you said you wanted. Then something happens. The excuses return. The procrastination shows up. The old habits quietly reappear. Before long, you are back inside the same range you were trying to escape. That is what this episode is about. Not motivation. Not information. Not another strategy. This episode of the Warrior Mind Podcast looks at human performance through a deeper lens: why people keep returning to the same level even when they want something more. Episode Overview Human performance is not just about output. It is not simply about how hard you work, how much discipline you have, or how much potential you carry. Human performance is the expression of your physical capacity, mental clarity, emotional regulation, values, beliefs, and identity under real-world pressure. That last part matters. Because pressure reveals the truth. Anyone can feel capable when life is calm. Anyone can set goals when motivation is high. Anyone can say they want change when the discomfort of staying the same becomes strong enough. But the real test comes when you move close to a new level. That is where the old identity pushes back. That is where many people start returning to the same level. The Complacent Zone In this episode, I talk about what I call the complacent zone. This is the familiar operating range you live inside. It has a floor and a ceiling. The floor is your mental line of support. This is the point where things become uncomfortable enough that you finally take action. Maybe your weight gets too high. Maybe your energy gets too low. Maybe your relationship becomes too strained. Maybe your finances hit a point where you say, “Enough.” That line of support creates urgency. You act. You recommit. You start moving again. But then you approach the ceiling. That ceiling is your mental line of resistance. This is where things get interesting. Because the resistance usually does not look like resistance at first. It looks like being too busy. It looks like needing a break. It looks like losing interest. It looks like confusion, fear, frustration, procrastination, or sudden self-sabotage. But underneath all of that is something more powerful. Your identity is trying to keep you inside the range it recognizes. (function(d,s,id) { var js; var fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://forms.aweber.com/form/30/1374258830.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, "script", "aweber-wjs-1506684634")); Why Returning to the Same Level Feels So Familiar Most people do not repeat patterns because they are weak. They repeat patterns because those patterns are familiar. The mind and body are always working with what has already been practiced. Your beliefs, emotions, values, past experiences, stories, environment, behaviors, and capabilities all help form the internal range you keep returning to. This is why progress can feel real without becoming permanent. You can lose weight and gain it back. You can save money and spend it again. You can build momentum and then quietly lose it. You can get close to the relationship, business, body, or life you want and still find yourself returning to the same level. From the outside, it may look like inconsistency. From the inside, it is often identity protection. The old self knows how to survive inside the old range. It does not always know how to live beyond it. Progress Is Not Always Change One of the strongest ideas in this episode is that movement is not the same as transformation. You may think you are making progress because you are moving upward again. But if you have already been at that level before, you may not be creating anything new. You may simply be recreating the past. That can be hard to admit. But it is also freeing. Because once you see the pattern clearly, you stop confusing short-term improvement with real change. Real change requires moving beyond the old ceiling and staying there long enough for that ceiling to become your new floor. That is the work. Not just breaking through once. Staying through. Probabilities vs. Possibilities Your current life is creating probabilities. Your past and present form a trajectory. If nothing changes beneath the surface, your future becomes fairly predictable. That does not mean it is fixed. It means your current identity system is already producing momentum. If you keep thinking the same way, choosing the same way, reacting the same way, training the same way, avoiding the same conversations, and tolerating the same internal limits, then returning to the same level becomes the most likely outcome. Possibility lives beyond the mental line of resistance. But possibility does not become real just because you can imagine it. Possibility becomes real when your behavior, beliefs, standards, and identity begin to align with that new level. That is where human performance changes. The Physical Side of Human Performance This is why physical challenge matters. The body exposes what the mind can hide. Put a man under a loaded barbell, on a steep trail, in a hard workout, or inside a physically demanding challenge, and his patterns show up quickly. Avoidance shows up. Excuses show up. Self-talk shows up. Emotional regulation shows up. The quality of discipline shows up. That is one reason training is such a powerful mirror. It does not just build strength. It reveals the identity behind the strength. A difficult workout can show you where you negotiate with yourself. A heavy lift can show you where you hesitate. Fatigue can reveal whether your standards are real or just convenient. Human performance is not separate from the body. The physical reveals the psychological. The Real Question Most people ask, “What am I capable of?” That is not a bad question. But it is not the deepest question. The better question is: Can your current identity carry the level of life you say you want? Because potential is not the problem for most people. Many people are carrying more capacity than they are expressing. They know more is possible. They can feel the unused strength, clarity, discipline, and purpose inside them. But potential alone does not change your life. Potential must be converted. Awareness must become action. Action must become practice. Practice must become identity. That is how returning to the same level stops. Key Takeaways From This Episode • Human performance is shaped by identity, not just effort. • The complacent zone is the familiar range between your mental line of support and mental line of resistance. • Your mental line of support is the internal floor that pushes you into action. • Your mental line of resistance is the internal ceiling where fear, excuses, procrastination, and sabotage tend to appear. • Backsliding is often the identity system pulling you back into the familiar. • Progress is not always transformation. Sometimes it is just the past repeating with new language. • Physical challenge reveals mental patterns faster than reflection alone. • Possibility becomes real only when it is practiced long enough to become your new probability. Reflection Questions Where do you keep returning to the same level? Where have you confused movement with real change? What goal have you approached before, only to pull back when it became unfamiliar? What excuses tend to show up near your mental line of resistance? What would have to shift in your identity for that old ceiling to become your new floor? These are not casual questions. They are performance questions. Because the next level of human performance is not found by collecting more information. It is found by identifying the internal range you keep living inside and expanding the identity that determines what you can actually sustain. Closing Thought If you keep returning to the same level, the answer is not always to push harder. Sometimes the answer is to look deeper. Not softer. Deeper. Look at the story. Look at the behavior. Look at the environment. Look at the emotional payoff of staying where you are. Look at the beliefs that keep making the familiar feel safe and the possible feel threatening. Because once you see the system, you can begin to change it. And once you change the system, human performance stops being random. It becomes aligned. Explore The Resilient Man Framework If this episode hit something real, the next step is to look at the structure underneath your performance. The Resilient Man Framework is designed to help you rebuild alignment across physical strength, mental clarity, emotional resilience, and meaningful purpose.
"When it comes to high-intensity interval training work, quality is much more important than quantity,” says Fraser Thurlow, Ph.D. Thurlow is a high-performance coach, researcher, and lecturer with over a decade of experience helping people improve their fitness and performance. He holds a PhD in Human Performance, has published extensively on training, and has lectured at leading Australian universities in sport and exercise science. His work focuses on translating science into practical, evidence-based strategies that improve health, fitness, and athletic performance. 00:00 - How to actually raise your VO2 max 05:26 - Long vs short interval training 09:00 - Heart rate vs. perceived exertion 11:13 - Accurately monitoring heart rate 13:12 - The sprint interval training protocol 19:07 - A sample weekly plan 23:58 - Working exercise into the day-to-day 28:24 - Making the most out of supersets 31:58 - VO2 max mistakes 34:32 - How to train for HYROX 39:17 - Foot strength & barefoot lifting 43:37 - Overrated & underrated fitness 45:35 - Fraser's sprint research 50:40 - VO2 max vs. muscle for longevity Referenced in the episode: For more about Thurlow & his personal training, visit: https://stan.store/drthurlow Jan Helgerud sprint study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17414804/ Vollaard analysis of VO2 max studies: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28079707/ We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Season 16, Episode 402 explores the Brain's Operating System for Human Performance, focusing on Phase 3: movement, adaptation, and performance. Andrea Samadi explains how movement triggers neurochemicals and blood flow, recovery enables adaptation, and measurable performance follows. The episode shows how consistent, purposeful movement plus prioritized recovery creates lasting biological change—improved sleep, lower resting heart rate, higher VO2 max, and clearer thinking—and offers simple strategies to build the movement loop into daily life. EP 402 — Introducing Phase 3 Movement, Adaptation & Performance Watch Andrea teach this episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/Btaihnb5HPs On EP 402, We'll Cover: Why movement is the missing link in human performance—and why the brain evolved to move before it learned. The Brain's Operating System for Human Performance—how the first three phases connect to create lasting change. The Movement Loop—my new framework explaining how movement leads to adaptation and ultimately performance. The science of adaptation—why the workout isn't what changes you, but the body's response during recovery is. My personal performance experiment—how tracking recovery, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, VO₂ Max, sleep, body composition, and biological age revealed measurable evidence of neuroscience in action. How the world's leading experts helped build this framework—and how their research fits together into one repeatable system. A preview of Phase 3—what you'll learn from Dr. Chuck Hillman, Dr. John Ratey, Kristen Holmes, Dr. John Medina, Jason Whitrock, and the bonus episodes throughout this season. Practical strategies you can begin using immediately to help your brain learn more effectively, your body adapt more efficiently, and your performance improve over time. Opening Welcome back to Season 16 of the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. I'm Andrea Samadi, and this is where we bridge neuroscience, social and emotional learning, and human performance so we can create measurable improvements in our well-being, achievement, leadership, productivity, and results. Seven years ago, when we launched this podcast, I started with one simple question: If results matter—and they matter now more than ever—how exactly are we using our brain to create those results? This question stemmed from the fact that very few of us were ever taught how the brain actually learns. How motivation begins. How emotions shape decisions. How relationships influence performance. Or how movement changes the brain. That single question has taken us on an incredible journey through neuroscience, psychology, education, leadership, and human performance. But something unexpected happened along the way. I thought I was collecting interviews. Instead... I discovered that I was uncovering a system. Looking back now, over the past 7 years, I realized every expert was describing the same mountain (or obstacle to overcome) but just from a different side (or with a different strategy). One explained motivation. Another explained attention. Another explained learning. Or repetition. Another explained recovery. Another explained movement. None of them contradicted each other. They completed each other. That was the moment I realized... I wasn't collecting interviews. I was assembling a blueprint. A Personal Discovery But there was still one question I couldn't answer. How would these ideas actually work together in everyday life? Could they work for anyone? Not a pro athlete who has all day to train, but a regular person, like me, who was determined to improve their health, well-being and productivity and results. That's when I stopped being just the interviewer... and participated in the experiment. Over the past year, I wasn't trying to become younger. I think our 50s, 60s and beyond, are an incredible time to practice and perfect our health beyond what we might have been able to do without as much effort in our 40s or younger. Looking back, I can honestly say that I wasn't trying to lower my resting heart rate. It just started to show up in my data when I did certain things, in a certain way. I wasn't trying to improve my WHOOP age (with my wearable device) or optimize my daily recovery score. I was simply trying to answer another question. If movement really changes the brain... Could I actually measure this? Can how much I move improve my data, and can I move too much (push too hard) and measure that as well? So I began paying much closer attention to my own data, and looking at what it meant. Not because I wanted better numbers. Well I did want better numbers, but I also wanted evidence. Something that could be replicated for others. There's lots of ways to measure our data with wearable devices. I used the Whoop wearable, something I have been wearing for the past 5 years. I was focused on my daily recovery. My resting heart rate. Heart rate variability. VO₂ Max. Sleep (specifically how much stress I had while sleeping), REM sleep, and restorative sleep. Body composition (how much fat and how much muscle) Then I looked at my hiking performance (did I need to run fast with a weighted vest to get zone 4 and 5), or could I walk along the canal with my dogs, and get my heart rate up that high without having to drive to the mountain. I looked at how high my heart rate went up with strength training. Week after week... Month after month... A pattern began to emerge. The improvements weren't random. They were connected. When I moved consistently...some easier workouts walking with one or two harder push hiking days, with some days at the gym on the stair climber, and others on the elliptical. My recovery improved. My resting heart rate dropped. My biological age became younger. My body became stronger. My mind became clearer. Long hikes felt easier. The numbers weren't the story. Adaptation was. For the first time, I wasn't just reading neuroscience week after week. I was watching it happen inside my own body. And that's when something clicked. Movement starts the change. Recovery allows the change. Adaptation becomes the change. And performance is simply the evidence that the change occurred. That realization became the foundation for everything you're about to hear this season. The Brain's Operating System As I reviewed hundreds of conversations with world-leading researchers over the past seven years, I realized these ideas weren't isolated discoveries. They fit together. Like pieces of one much larger puzzle. Today, I call that framework... The Brain's Operating System for Human Performance. It's built on five interconnected phases. Each one depends on the one before it. Phase 1 — Regulation & Safety[i] Before the brain can learn... it must first feel safe. Phase 2 — Neurochemistry & Motivation Meaning creates motivation. Motivation creates action. Action begins change. Phase 3 — Movement, Adaptation & Performance Movement changes the brain. Adaptation changes the body. Together they create lasting performance. Phase 4 — Perception & Social Intelligence Understanding ourselves. Understanding others. Building trust. Strengthening relationships. Phase 5 — Integration & Meaning Where knowledge becomes wisdom. Experience becomes insight. Performance becomes purpose. Performance doesn't begin at the finish line. It begins with the foundations. And every phase strengthens the next. Why Phase 3 Matters For decades we've treated learning as though it happens inside classrooms... inside books... inside meetings... inside our heads. But evolution tells a very different story. The brain didn't evolve to sit still. It evolved to move. Movement came first. Learning followed. Every step we take increases blood flow. Releases powerful neurochemicals like BDNF. Sharpens attention. Improves executive function. Creates the biological conditions for learning. Movement isn't simply exercise. It's the input that begins one of the most remarkable biological cycles in the human body. The Power of Loops I had to create another loop to show how this works. Nature rarely works in straight lines. Our hearts beat in rhythms. Our lungs breathe in cycles. Sleep follows repeating stages. The seasons repeat. Life itself is built on loops. Human performance is no different. The greatest mistake we've made is thinking performance is a destination. Or an end result that we will celebrate when we get there. Neuroscience shows us it's actually a cycle. One that repeats every single day. I call it... The Movement Loop. One of the biggest shifts I've made while building this framework is changing the way I think about exercise. Most of us think the workout is the goal. Or we think “I've got to go the gym” and I'm not sure about you, but my old way of thinking used to be something along the lines of “to burn fat, or calories, or so I can create a deficit with the workout.” But Neuroscience—and exercise physiology—tell us something very different. The workout is only the beginning. Think of it by looking at the movement loop. Movement is the Input Every system begins with an input. For our bodies, that input is movement. Whether it's a walk around the neighborhood, a strength-training session, a yoga class, or a hike in the mountains, movement sends a message to the brain and body. It says: "Something is being asked of you." The brain responds immediately. Blood flow increases. Attention sharpens. Neurochemicals like BDNF are released. The nervous system begins preparing for change. Movement isn't what changes us. Movement is what tells the body that change is needed. Adaptation is the Process This is where the real transformation happens. Not while we're exercising. But afterward. During recovery. While we sleep. While proteins rebuild muscle. While neural pathways strengthen. While the cardiovascular system becomes more efficient. While the brain reorganizes itself through neuroplasticity. Adaptation is the body's remarkable ability to respond to the demands we've placed upon it. If we repeat the right inputs consistently, the body doesn't simply recover. It becomes more capable. This is why recovery isn't the opposite of growth. Recovery is the process that makes growth possible. Performance is the Output Performance is simply the visible result of this successful adaptation. It's thinking more clearly during an important meeting. Remembering information more easily. Feeling stronger day to day. Recovering faster after stress. Leading with greater confidence. Sleeping more deeply. Seeing your resting heart rate decline. Watching your VO₂ Max improve. Noticing your biological age become younger. Performance isn't one great day. Or one workout. It's the evidence that your brain and body have adapted over time to your repeated efforts. Then the Cycle Begins Again The beautiful part is that the process never ends. Today's performance becomes tomorrow's starting point. As you become more capable, your brain and body are ready for the next challenge. So you move again. You recover again. You adapt again. You perform at an even higher level. This is why I call it The Movement Loop. It's not a one-time event. It's a lifelong cycle of growth. Every walk. Every workout. Every good night's sleep. Every recovery day. Every healthy habit. You're sending your brain and body another message: "I'm becoming a little more capable than yesterday." That's how sustainable human performance is built. Not through one extraordinary effort. But through thousands of ordinary repetitions that, over time, create extraordinary results. Movement The body moves. The brain responds. ↓ Brain Activation Blood flow increases. BDNF and other neurochemicals are released. The brain becomes ready to learn. ↓ Attention Executive function improves. Focus sharpens. Mental readiness increases. ↓ Learning New neural pathways strengthen through repetition and experience. Knowledge becomes skill. ↓ Recovery Sleep, regulation, and restoration allow the brain and body to rebuild. Recovery isn't the opposite of growth. Recovery is what makes growth possible. ↓ Adaptation The nervous system becomes more efficient. The cardiovascular system becomes stronger. Metabolism improves. The brain becomes more resilient. The body becomes more capable. ↓ Performance Performance isn't a single event. It's a capacity. The ability to think clearly. Learn faster. Recover better. Move more efficiently. Lead with greater confidence. ↓ Confidence Success reinforces belief. Belief increases motivation. Confidence encourages us to move again. And the cycle repeats. The Movement Loop doesn't end with performance. Performance creates confidence. Confidence inspires more movement. And every repetition builds a stronger brain and a stronger body. Throughout this phase we'll explore every step of this loop with some of the world's leading experts. Movement changes the brain. Adaptation changes the body. Performance changes your life. The Experts EP 403 — Dr. Chuck Hillman & Paul Zientarski Movement is the Trigger We'll discover why exercise is one of the most powerful ways to prepare the brain for learning through BDNF, executive function, cognition, and academic performance. Key takeaway: Every adaptation begins with movement. EP 404 — Dr. John Ratey The Brain Adapts We'll revisit the groundbreaking work from his book Spark to understand how exercise literally rewires the brain through neuroplasticity and prepares us for learning. Key takeaway: Exercise changes the brain before it changes performance. EP 405 — Kristen Holmes Adaptation Happens During Recovery We'll explore why sleep, recovery, nervous system regulation, and capacity building determine whether the body actually adapts. This is also where I'll share my own WHOOP data—including recovery trends, resting heart rate, and biological age—to show how adaptation becomes measurable. Key takeaway: Recovery builds capacity. Consistency creates adaptation. EP 406 — Dr. John Medina Learning Creates Better Performance Attention, memory, and learning science come together to explain how movement-supported learning becomes real-world performance. Key takeaway: What we learn shapes how we perform. EP 407 — Jason Whitrock Adaptation Changes the Body We'll explore metabolic health, brain energy, body composition, VO₂ Max, and performance capacity while connecting the neuroscience of movement with measurable physiological adaptation. This is where I'll bring together my own data on muscle gain, fat loss, cardiovascular fitness, and healthy aging. Key takeaway: Movement changes the brain. Adaptation changes the body. Together they transform performance. Bonus Episodes Throughout Phase 3 I'll also be sharing several bonus episodes using my own health data as a living case study. We'll explore: Why recovery is built—not found (so we need to build it into our day strategically). The story behind my resting heart rate. How adaptation changed my body. How it works when you Move Today so you can become Younger Tomorrow. Restorative Sleep Sleep Stress These episodes connect neuroscience to real-world data and show what happens when consistent habits become measurable biological change. Because neuroscience isn't just something we study. It's something we can measure. It's something we can experience. And ultimately... it's something we can use to become healthier... stronger... more resilient... and more capable throughout every stage of life. Key Takeaways for Today Movement is the input. (what we do) Every meaningful change begins with movement. It prepares the brain for learning by increasing blood flow, oxygen, and neurochemicals like BDNF that support attention, learning, and neuroplasticity. The actions we choose every day that provide the brain and body with a stimulus for change. Movement Exercise Walking Strength training Recovery habits Nutrition Sleep Adaptation is the process. The workout doesn't change you. Your body's response during recovery does. Every period of quality sleep, recovery, and restoration is an opportunity for your brain and body to become stronger and more efficient. Adaptation — What Happens The brain and body respond to those inputs by becoming more efficient and more capable. Neuroplasticity Increased BDNF Stronger neural pathways Improved cardiovascular fitness Muscle repair and growth Better metabolic health Nervous system regulation Performance is the output. High performance isn't something we find—it's something we build. Every repetition of the Movement Loop increases your capacity to learn, lead, recover, and perform. Output — The Result The measurable improvements we experience because of adaptation. Better focus Faster learning Higher energy Greater resilience Lower resting heart rate Improved VO₂ Max Better body composition Higher performance Greater healthspan What gets measured becomes visible. Tracking meaningful metrics—such as recovery, resting heart rate, VO₂ Max, sleep, or body composition—helps you see adaptations that would otherwise go unnoticed and reinforces the habits creating them. Your brain and body are one interconnected system. Better thinking, stronger physical health, emotional resilience, and sustained performance all emerge from the same biological process of movement, adaptation, and continuous growth. Tips to Implement This Week ✓ Move with purpose every day. Aim for 30–60 minutes of purposeful movement—whether it's a brisk walk, strength training, cycling, yoga, or hiking. Remember, consistency matters more than intensity. Every movement is a signal to your brain and body to adapt. A walk after dinner, when kept consistent, can have an incredible impact on your overall health improvement. You don't need to go all out for results to show up. Start paying attention to your body's signals. You don't need a WHOOP or smartwatch to begin. Simply notice how you feel before and after movement. Ask yourself: Do I think more clearly? Is my mood better? Do I have more energy? Am I sleeping better? Your body is always giving you feedback. Learn to listen. ✓ Protect your recovery. Treat tonight's sleep as part of today's workout. Prioritize restorative sleep, manage stress, and allow your brain and body the time they need to repair, rebuild, and become stronger. We are all at different stages here. This one is always a work in progress for me. I ran into someone I used to see every Saturday on the hiking trails this morning, and I asked him where he had been, or if he was hiking at a different time. I used to see him like clockwork and I noticed he wasn't there as usual. He told me that he was protecting his sleep, and worked out indoors more when the weather was getting hot. In order to beat the heat in AZ, early mornings are the best time for this, but this guy knew to protect his recovery. I thought it was brilliant that he was able to practice what he knew to be important. ✓ Measure one meaningful metric. Choose one health measure—such as your resting heart rate, sleep quality, daily steps, recovery score, or VO₂ Max—and observe how it changes over time. You're not looking for perfection; you're looking for patterns that reveal adaptation. I'll share what I noticed over time on our bonus episodes by watching certain metrics. This has been one of my biggest discoveries. For years I assumed harder was always better. But when I compared my data…you can see 2 of my data charts in the show notes. I found something surprising. A long hike and a morning walk created very different responses. My hikes pushed my cardiovascular system into higher heart-rate zones. My walks kept me primarily in Zone 1 while reducing stress and supporting recovery. Both improved my health. They simply trained different systems. Instead of asking… “Was today's workout hard enough?” Ask… “What system am I training today?” ✓ Move before you think. Before beginning a challenging project, studying for an exam, or making an important decision, spend five to ten minutes moving your body. Then notice how your focus, mood, creativity, and mental clarity improve. ✓ Think in loops, not isolated workouts. Instead of asking, "Did I exercise today?" ask yourself: "How did I support tomorrow's brain today?" Every walk. Every workout. Every healthy meal. Every recovery day. Every night of restorative sleep. Each one is another step around the Movement Loop—helping your brain learn, your body adapt, and your performance improve over time. Review & Conclusion Review and Conclude EP 402, Phase 3: Movement, Adaptation & Performance. As we close today, I hope you're (like I did) beginning to see movement differently. Not simply as exercise. Or to burn calories. Not simply as another item on your to-do list. But as the biological signal that tells your brain and body it's time to grow. Throughout Phase 3, we'll discover that movement does far more than strengthen muscles. It sharpens attention. It accelerates learning. It builds resilience. It strengthens the nervous system. It improves recovery. And over time, it transforms both the brain and the body through the remarkable process of adaptation. This season isn't about becoming an elite athlete. It's about becoming someone who understands how lasting performance is built. Together, we'll explore one simple but powerful truth: Movement is the input (what we do) Adaptation is the process (what happens when we do it) Performance is the output (what we get from doing it) Then the cycle begins again. That's the Movement Loop. Every walk. Every workout. Every night of restorative sleep. Every healthy choice. Every recovery day. Each one is another opportunity to build a stronger brain, a healthier body, and a greater capacity to learn, lead, and perform. Because when movement changes the brain... the brain changes the body. And when the brain and body begin working together... performance is no longer something we chase. It's something we build— one movement, one recovery, one adaptation, one day at a time. Next week, we'll begin our journey around the Movement Loop with EP 403, revisiting Dr. Chuck Hillman and Paul Zientarski, where we'll discover why every lasting transformation begins with movement—and why a single step today can change the trajectory of our brain, our health, and our performance tomorrow. Thank you for joining me, and I'll see you next week. RESOURCES: Phase 1 Anchor Episodes Episode 384 — Dr. Baland Jalal Curiosity, Sleep & Imagination → How curiosity, sleep, and imagination prepare the brain for learning and creativity. Episode 385 — Dr. Bruce Perry Trauma, Rhythm & Relational Safety → Why regulation and safety are the foundation for learning and performance. Episode 386 — Thoryn Stephens Biometrics & Performance → Turning HRV, sleep, and metabolic data into actionable performance strategies. Episode 387 — Dr. Sui Wong Lifestyle Medicine & Brain Health → How autonomic balance and healthy habits build long-term brain resilience. Episode 388 — Rohan Dixit HRV & Self-Regulation → Developing nervous system awareness through real-time biofeedback and HRV. Phase 2 Anchor Episodes Episode 393 — Bob Proctor Belief → Why our beliefs determine the actions we take and the results we create. Episode 394 — Dr. Caroline Leaf Thought Patterns → How our thoughts shape neurochemistry, behavior, and long-term performance. Episode 395 — Dr. John Medina Attention & Reward → Why attention determines what the brain values, remembers, and learns. Episode 396 — Dr. Anna Lembke Neurochemistry & Reinforcement → How dopamine reinforces behavior and why sustainable motivation matters more than borrowed dopamine. Episode 397 — Dr. Chuck Hillman Movement & Brain Activation → How physical movement prepares the brain for learning, focus, and performance. Episode 398 — Dr. Friederike Fabritius Neuroleadership & Energy → How to manage brain energy and sustain high performance over time. REFERENCES: [i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 384 “How Learning Begins in the Brain: Sleep, Safety and Curiosity (Revisiting Dr. Baland Jalal) https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/hypnagogic-genius-capture-your-best-ideas-at-the-edge-of-sleep/
In this not-to-miss episode of Do Good to Lead Well, I am joined by Marcus Buckingham—the world's foremost expert on human strengths and engagement—for a candid, data-rich conversation about bringing love into leadership. Drawing on his latest book, Marcus redefines love for the modern workplace: not as romance, but as an intentional design for human flourishing and extraordinary results.Our conversation begins with the deeply personal, as Marcus shares the vulnerability and lessons he learned after selling his beloved company, sparking a compelling case for why “designing love in” must be at the core of modern organizations.He also directly challenges the widespread myths that love makes organizations weak or leaders soft. Instead, tough love emerges as a vital force; sometimes the most loving thing a leader can do is share hard truths or make difficult calls. This episode dives into the real-world consequences of unloving practices like inefficient handoffs or unmanageable spans of control, offering concrete strategies for leaders to build truly vibrant, trust-filled cultures.Whether you're a CEO who wants to transform your organization a team leader wanting to create an environment where you people flourish, this episode provides an evidence-based blueprint. Discover why love is the ultimate performance driver and how you can start designing it into how you lead today.What You'll Learn- The power of love at work.- Redefining love in organizations.- From 'OK' to 'I Love It': The J-Curve of Experience.- Tough love: The role of accountability.- What are loving and unloving practices at work?- The ABCs of leading with love (Authenticity, Beliefs, Customs)Podcast Timestamps(00:02) - Introduction and Origin Story(02:17) - Vulnerability and Lessons from Selling a Business(06:00) - The Business Case for Designing Love In(11:22) - Defining Love in Organizations(17:11) - The Critical Importance of “Fives”(23:18) - Loving and Unloving Workplace Practices(32:11) - Tough Love and Accountability(36:17) - The ABCs of Leading with Love(44:02) - Rebuilding Trust and The Five Feelings of Love(51:07) - The Future of Designing Loving ExperiencesKEYWORDSPositive Leadership, Human Performance, Gallup, StrengthsFinder, Business Case for Love, Organizational Culture, Employee Engagement, Workplace Love, Trust, Team Building, Positive Experiences, Spans of Control, Loving Handoffs in Customer Service, Customer Loyalty, Authenticity, Tough Love, Human Flourishing, Loving and Unloving Practices, CEO Success
Welcome Back to the WHOOP Podcast's Science of Human Performance Series! This week, WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist Dr. Kristen Holmes sits down with WHOOP SVP of Research, Algorithms, and Data Emily Capodilupo for a deep dive into the science behind the WHOOP Sleep Score and the habits that have the biggest impact on restorative sleep.Emily explains why sleep consistency is one of the strongest predictors of performance, recovery, and long-term health, and walks through the four metrics that make up your WHOOP Sleep Score: sleep duration, consistency, efficiency, and sleep stress. Together, Dr. Holmes and Emily unpack how nutrition, exercise, alcohol, stress, and your daily routines influence sleep quality, share practical strategies for falling asleep and staying asleep, and discuss how poor sleep can sometimes be an early signal of underlying health issues.Whether you're looking to better understand your WHOOP data or simply wake up feeling more rested, this episode offers a science-backed framework for building healthier sleep habits that last.01:11 How WHOOP Built The Sleep Algorithm02:17 The 4 Pillars of Sleep: Duration, Consistency, Efficiency, & Stress03:20 The Secret To You Best Night's Sleep: Sleep Consistency08:06 Sleep Efficiency Explained11:38 Impact of Alcohol on Sleep Quality18:01: How Your Day Shapes Your Night19:34: Exclusive Offer For WHOOP Podcast Listeners20:07: How Sleep Stress Impacts How Rested You Feel24:08: Is Your Sleep Normal?25:48: Why Sedatives Don't Actually Make You Sleep Better26:59: Defining and Combatting The 2 Types of Insomnia28:57: Light Timing: Benefits of Red Light Therapy on Sleep 30:57: Winding Down Before Sleep: Breathwork & Stress Reduction34:07: Understand Your Health with WHOOP Advanced Labs34:41: Impact of Exercise on Your Ability to Fall Asleep 42:40: How to Prepare for Sleep & Stay Asleep44:28: What Your Lab Results Can Tell You About Sleep 53:40: Creating Contrast Between Day and NightSupport the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn
Niall Moyna, Professor of Clinical Exercise Physiology from the School of Health and Human Performance in DCU, explains how that heart attack at age 60 could have started when you were 20-years-old, but that it's never too late to start working on your exercise and nutrition. He also discusses biological age tests.
Send us Fan MailThis week's EP 482 is a solocast. Just me updating you, the listener on all things life of Scotty. It's been an interesting last three months. Big changes. Just took a role as Head of Rehab for the Cirque du Soleil, and it's been an interesting shift in life and focus. I'm hoping I can still continue to do this podcast with the same level of guests and storytelling, and that you, the listener, will continue to love what you listen to each week. Please enjoy this little update, and we'll be back with another powerful guest next week! If you liked this EP, please take the time to rate and comment, share with a friend, and connect with us on social channels IG @Kingopain, TW @BuiltbyScott, LI+FB Scott Livingston. You can find all things LYM at www.LYMLab.com, download your free Life Lab Starter Kit today and get busy living https://lymlab.com/free-lym-lab-starter/Please take the time to visit and connect with our sponsors, they are an essential part of our success:www.ReconditioningHQ.comwww.FreePainGuide.com
In this episode of What Are You Made Of?, Tracy Duhs joins Mike "C-Roc" to challenge everything you thought you knew about hydration, wellness, and optimizing your health. A wellness educator, hydration expert, and host of the acclaimed HYDRATE Podcast, Tracy shares how a lifetime of health struggles—from growing up surrounded by pesticides to a life-threatening pregnancy caused by an undiagnosed mineral imbalance—led her to dedicate her life to understanding the true science of hydration.Mike C-Roc and Tracy explore why drinking more water isn't always the answer, the critical difference between intracellular and extracellular hydration, and how minerals, water quality, and cellular health impact everything from brain function and energy to longevity and performance. Tracy also explains why structured water, spring water, and proper mineral balance play a much bigger role in wellness than most people realize, while offering practical ways anyone can improve their hydration at home.The conversation also dives into biohacking, creatine, frequency medicine, and the importance of mastering the foundational habits that drive long-term health rather than chasing the latest wellness trends. Tracy shares how she transitioned from real estate investing to building a personal brand and educating millions about restorative wellness, proving that sometimes our greatest challenges become our greatest purpose.If you're looking to boost your energy, sharpen your mind, improve your health, and rethink one of the most overlooked aspects of human performance, this episode is packed with eye-opening insights and actionable takeaways.Website-https://tracyduhs.comSocial Media Links/Handles: https://www.instagram.com/tracyduhs/?hl=enhttps://www.youtube.com/user/DuhsTracy
Dr Nick Tiller, author of The Health and Wellness Lie, joined Philip Clark to explain how supplements, fad diets and unproven biohacks are marketed to exploit consumer biases.
If We Built It From Scratch — Drew and Alex Redesign Military Human PerformanceNo guest. No plan. Just Drew and Alex with keys to the kingdom. If you handed us the whole thing tomorrow, what would we actually change?MOPs & MOEs is proudly sponsored by Teamworks — the performance operations platform trusted by elite military units and professional sports organizations worldwide. Teamworks brings your scheduling, communications, athlete monitoring, and readiness data into one unified system — so your leaders stay informed, your people stay connected, and your unit stays ready. No more scattered spreadsheets or missed messages. Just one platform built for organizations where performance is the mission. Learn more at https://teamworks.com/Also supported by TrainHeroic — the coaching and programming platform built for strength and conditioning coaches who train serious athletes. Whether you're programming for a military unit, a tactical team, or individual athletes, TrainHeroic gives you the tools to build and deliver professional training programs, track athlete progress, and communicate directly with your people — all through one app. Your athletes get world-class programming on their phone; you get the visibility to actually coach them. Start your free trial at https://account.trainheroic.com/create-accountWhat we get into:Coach pay comes first. The DOD is on track to become the largest employer of strength and conditioning professionals in the world, which means contracting companies will be too. The contracting model is a race to the bottom on price, with staff salaries absorbing the cuts. That has to change.The five pillars get a rebrand — move, eat, think, recover, connect. Why dropping a dedicated spiritual pillar doesn't mean spirituality doesn't matter — it just means it's woven into everything else.Branding and marketing are undervalued. Embedded human performance has to compete for attention in a way that S1 never does. Drew's pitch: hand the whole thing to an ad agency and see what happens.The personal services contract problem, explained plainly. Coaches meet every FAR criterion for personal services but get treated as non-personal services. Cleaning this up would mean better pay, better working conditions, and actually being able to choose who you hire.GS billets for lead coaches — at minimum the lead strength coach and athletic trainer should be government employees with real career progression, same pay grade as the PT and dietitian.The coach-NCO relationship. Coaches exist to transport people from A to B — that's literally where the word comes from: a 15th century Hungarian horse-drawn carriage. Some coaches are getting fired for leading PT sessions. That's insane.Extender courses are teaching the wrong things. Periodization and physiology when people actually need interpersonal skills and session flow management.Data — stop making it the mission. Just watch what happens to the numbers that justified these programs in the first place.Wearables — a closet full of devices, service members pick what they like, a small subset of data flows to the HP team for trend monitoring and outlier detection, nobody touches a custom military interface.Policy — the Randolph Sheppard Act of 1936 and military dining, credentialing through MTFs vs operational leadership, and why language in DODI 1308.03 may have killed the original ACFT.Mentioned in this episode:Ben Bergeron — move, eat, think, recover, connect frameworkKat Oswald — recent podcast guest, helped implement the five factors at Alex's day jobRachel Chamberlain — community-based blueprinting, podcast appearance incomingDODI 1308.3 — DOD physical fitness and body composition program instructionRandolph Shepherd Act, 1936 — federal law governing vending and dining on government propertyLong and Strong — the Mops and Moes training program on TrainHeroic Views expressed are those of the speakers and do not represent any official organization.
Seller productivity is being redefined in real time, and the divide is no longer about effort or experience. In this segment, Alex Varel shares a grounded look at how AI is already reshaping the role, from a RevOps leader training multiple agents in a single weekend to the expectation that sellers will augment their own output. The conversation highlights a growing reality for revenue teams: those who get hands-on with AI will operate at a different level, while those who don't risk falling behind faster than they expect. Alex Varel is EVP of Worldwide Sales at Cerebras Systems, where he leads global go-to-market efforts at the forefront of AI infrastructure. He has built and scaled high-performing teams across MongoDB, Zscaler, and Multiverse, driving growth through IPO, hyper-scale expansion, and emerging technology shifts. Connect with Alex: LinkedIn Resources mentioned: "The Power of Myth" by Joseph Campbell "AI Superpowers" by Kai-Fu Lee “Leonardo da Vinci” by Walter Isaacson "No Country for Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy “The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley” by Jimmy Soni Listen to the full episode: How AI Is Rewriting the Sales Playbook and Raising the Bar on Human Performance with Alex Varel Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management
In episode 401 Andrea Samadi welcomes Greg Hill to explore why trust is the essential foundation for learning, growth, and high performance. They discuss how trust creates psychological safety, encourages risk-taking and creativity, and acts as a multiplier for organizational results. Greg shares practical leadership practices—truthfulness, consistency, competence, and genuine care—and personal stories about marathon training to show how movement builds confidence and supports clear thinking, resilience, and sustained motivation. This episode launches Phase 3: Movement, Adaptation, and Learning in the podcast's brain operating system series. Welcome back to Season 16 of the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. I'm Andrea Samadi, and on this podcast, we bridge the science behind social and emotional learning, emotional intelligence, and practical neuroscience so we can create measurable improvements in well-being, achievement, productivity, and results. Watch the full YouTube interview here https://youtu.be/kfvSFMQZ3dk On EP 401, You Will Learn: ✔ Why trust is the foundation of learning, growth, and high performance. ✔ How psychological safety changes the brain, reducing threat and increasing engagement. ✔ Why great leaders create environments where people feel safe enough to learn, take risks, and perform at their best. ✔ How trust influences attention, confidence, decision-making, and long-term success. ✔ The connection between movement, trust, and the brain's readiness to learn as we launch Phase 3: Movement, Learning & Cognition. ✔ Practical leadership strategies from Greg Hill to build trust with your team, family, classroom, or organization. Before the brain can learn, grow, adapt, or perform at its highest level, it must first feel safe enough to trust. In this episode, Greg Hill explains why trust is the hidden foundation of every high-performing individual and team. Trust → Engagement → Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Memory → Performance → Confidence. Over the past several months, we've been building what I've called The Brain's Operating System for Human Performance. In Phase 1, we explored Regulation and Safety, learning why the brain performs best when the nervous system feels regulated, balanced, and secure. In Phase 2, we examined Motivation and Neurochemistry, uncovering what drives action, what sustains effort, and what breaks the motivation loop. Next we will move into Phase 3: Movement, Adaptation and Learning. The theme for Phase 3 did change and I'll explain that once we dive into EP 403. But before we can get there, we are going to go a bit deeper into something the brain needs to feel safe: trust. EP 401 — Trust: The Foundation of Learning Question: What must happen before learning or any change can occur? Trust → Safety → Engagement → Action → Learning Before movement changes the brain, the brain must feel safe enough to engage. With Trust. Because trust creates psychological safety. Safety creates engagement. Engagement creates action. And action creates learning. When trust is present, people are more willing to take risks, embrace challenges, learn from mistakes, and move beyond what is comfortable. When trust is absent, the brain shifts its energy toward protection rather than growth. We've explored the importance of trust before on this podcast. Back on EP 207[i], we spoke with Greg Link, co-founder of the Covey Leadership Center and founder of FranklinCovey's Global Speed of Trust Practice. Greg Link shared how trust accelerates relationships, strengthens organizations, and serves as a multiplier for performance. Today's conversation takes that idea one step further. Throughout my career, whenever I've met someone who consistently brings out the very best in others, I've wanted to understand why. What are they doing differently? What principles guide them? How do they create environments where people feel safe enough to grow, learn, and perform at their highest levels? That's why I invited today's guest, Greg Hill, to join us. I've had the opportunity to work directly with Greg for over a year and a half, and one thing stood out immediately: I always knew that Greg trusted me to do my best work. That trust wasn't something we talked about. It was something he demonstrated. I felt it every day. Over time, I began to notice that this wasn't unique to my experience. Greg seemed to create the same environment for everyone around him. People wanted to do their best work, not because they had to, but because they felt trusted, valued, and supported by him. It made me curious. Was there something deeper happening beneath the surface? Could trust be one of the hidden factors that unlocks learning, growth, confidence, and high performance? Greg Hill is a respected leader, mentor, and trusted advisor who has spent years helping people and organizations reach their highest potential through relationships built on trust, accountability, and genuine human connection. Today, we'll explore the neuroscience of trust, its connection to leadership and performance, and why trust may be one of the most important foundations for learning, growth, and human potential. As we launch Phase 3, you'll hear why trust may be the bridge between motivation and action, and why people are often willing to enter the learning cycle only when they feel safe enough to take the first step. Welcome to Episode 401. Let's meet Greg Hill. Greg Hill, welcome to the podcast, and thank you for joining me. I've been looking forward to this conversation for quite some time because I've experienced firsthand the impact you've had on people around you, and today I'd love to explore some of the principles you've learned over the years that have helped you build trust, develop leaders, and bring out the best in others. Question #1 Greg, when most people hear the word trust, they think about whether they trust another person (in relationship to them). But I've always wondered if trust begins long before that. What do you believe are the foundations of trust, and what is it about certain leaders that makes people naturally feel safe enough to trust them? Question #2 Why is trust so important for performance? Stephen R Covey said that “trust is the one thing that affects everything else you're doing. It's a performance multiplier and it takes your trajectory upwards.” Why do you think this happens? Why do we perform best when we are in an environment where trust exists? Also, what happens when trust is absent? Question #3 We've spent the past season exploring regulation, safety, motivation, and performance. I wonder how do you foster trust and safety with those you work with? Is it an intentional part of your philosophy, or is it just something that comes naturally to you? Question #4 (Movement Connection) As we launch our phase on Movement, Adaptation and Learning, I couldn't help but notice that many high-performing leaders seem to have some form of movement practice in their lives. For me it's hiking mountains. For you it was marathon running. What role has movement played in helping you think clearly, manage stress, make decisions, and perform at your best throughout your career? Final Question As we begin this new phase focused on movement, adaptation and learning, What is one thing every leader, educator, parent, or coach can do right away to build more trust and create an environment where people can learn, grow, and perform at their best? Thank you, Greg, I appreciate the time you took to share your thoughts on trust and leadership as we launch Phase 3 of our podcast. Your ideas have helped to explain why people are willing to enter the learning cycle in the first place, with trust that reduces threat, increases attention, strengthens relationships, and creates the conditions for growth. You've been an incredible mentor and leader in my life and I'm grateful that we are able to stay in touch. Final Thoughts Next week, we'll begin Phase 3: Movement, Adaptation and how this all ties into our performance, exploring what happens after engagement occurs and how movement literally changes the brain's ability to learn, remember, think, and perform. Because when trust creates safety, movement creates change. If Phase 1 taught us how to regulate the brain, and Phase 2 taught us what motivates the brain, today's episode showed us what creates the conditions for growth. Trust reduces threat and opens the door to learning. Next episode (in 2 more weeks), we'll discover what happens when movement steps through that door and begins changing the brain itself. See you the middle of July. REFERENCES: [i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 207 with Greg Link on “Unleashing Greatness with Neuroscience, SEL, Trust and the 7 Habits” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/co-founder-of-coveylink-greg-link-on-unleashing-greatness-with-neuroscience-sel-trust-and-the-7-habits/
Welcome to the Science of Human Performance Series where we are breaking down the key metric for you to improve your fitness. This week, we're unpacking Strain with WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance, Principal Scientist Dr. Kristen Holmes and WHOOP Staff Research Scientist Dr. Greg Grosicki. Together, Dr. Holmes and Dr. Grosicki explore how both cardiovascular and musculoskeletal load are taken into account when measuring a member's daily strain to help balance training, recovery, and build long-term fitness. The conversation explains the influence of WHOOP Strain on overall fitness goals, from improving fitness to supporting weight management, and increasing VO₂ max. This episode will give practical guidance on your training routine, helping you build the habits necessary for performance, healthspan, and longevity. (00:00) Looking To Gain Fitness? WHOOP Strain Can Help(01:25) What is Strain?(02:07) How Does WHOOP Measure Strain?(03:21) What Is The Neuromuscular System – Why Does It Matter For Strain? (03:57) How Does WHOOP Measure Musculoskeletal Load?(08:09) Creating Impactful Strain Recommendations: WHOOP Coach(11:16) Exclusive Offer For WHOOP Podcast Listeners(11:50) Why Is Strain Measured on a 21-Point Scale?(16:37) The Power of Consistency: Improving Fitness By Following Strain Coach(23:21) Refer A Friend: Get 2 Months Free!(23:56) Is Strain The Biggest Lever For Improving Cardio Health? (24:57) How To Improve Strain (Habits For Busy Individuals)(27:03) Focussing on Heart Rate Zones(29:32) What Does VO2 Max Tell About Strain?(32:21) Building A Fitness Routine: Is Changing Strain Activities More Effective?(39:06) Exclusive WHOOP Advanced Labs Offer(39:40) Can You Still See Fitness Gains With High Strain & Low Recovery? (41:01) Greg & Kristen's Go-To Strain Activities For Fitness(44:50) Thanks For Listening: New Member Offer & WHOOP Apparel & Accessories DiscountSupport the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn
Red and near-infrared light may be the most underestimated recovery tool in your environment, and the science behind what it actually does inside your cells is far more compelling than the wellness industry gives it credit for. Scott Chaverri didn't set out to build one of the leading red light therapy companies in the country. He was a burnt-out caregiver looking for anything that would help him sleep and function after two years of watching his son fight cancer. He found red light therapy in 2017 and noticed real changes. When the price of adding more panels shocked him, he decided to build his own. Mito Red Light did a million dollars in sales its first year. The science behind photobiomodulation is worth understanding. Red and near-infrared wavelengths penetrate several centimeters into the body and act directly on the mitochondria, accelerating ATP production and triggering downstream effects that include better circulation, reduced inflammation, and a meaningful boost in cellular melatonin. A study on elite female basketball players found serum melatonin levels rose 67% after a single 30-minute session, which lines up with the number one piece of feedback Mito receives from customers: better sleep. Scott's broader argument reframes the whole conversation too. Modern humans spend roughly 93% of their time indoors, and much of what red light therapy accomplishes is correcting a light deficiency most people don't know they have. For the biohacking crowd chasing marginal gains, that reframe matters. Dr. Fix brings a clinician's perspective throughout, connecting photobiomodulation to the laser and dry needling work at PhysioRoom and asking the questions practitioners actually want answered: dosing, distance, timing, device selection, and when a panel outperforms a mask. The episode also gets into the single biggest reason people return their devices without ever giving them a real shot, and it has nothing to do with the technology. Quotes “Modern humans have very indoor lifestyles and they're sunlight deficient." (08:44 | Scott Chaverri) "If the cells have more energy at their disposal, they can do their jobs better. And so theoretically, any cell that has mitochondria, which is every cell in the human body except red blood cells, has the potential to benefit from exposure to these wavelengths of light due to that increased ATP production." (11:36 | Scott Chaverri) "We're spending 93% of our time indoors. And so when they correct the deficiency, they notice that they're feeling better, they sleep better, whatever the case is." (09:01 | Scott Chaverri) "We just giving it a little bit more energy so it can do its job. It knows what to do. Just have to give it what it needs." (21:50 | Scott Chaverri) "The sun rises. We're meant to get copious amounts of red and infrared light at dawn. It's the reason why the sky is red at sunrise and sunset, because that's the only wavelengths that are reaching us. And so that is like the signal to wake up." (1:01:40 | Scott Chaverri) Connect with Scott Chaverri: Visit The Mito Red Light Website Red Light Therapy (@mitoredlightofficial) Scott worked for several Fortune 500 companies, in the business services, medical device, financial services and ecommerce industries. Having dealt with health challenges in childhood and early adulthood, Scott has always been passionate about all things health and wellness. Constantly learning, tinkering and evolving, his goal is to build Mito Red Light Inc into a preeminent health and wellness company empowering people with tools and information to optimize their performance and maximize their health spans. SideKick Tool Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board 15% off Promo Code: DRA15 RAD Roller Revogreen HYDRAGUN Athletic Brewing 20% off: ANDREWF20 Connect with Physio Room: Visit the Physio Room Website Follow Physio Room on Instagram Follow Physio Room on Facebook Andrew's Personal Instagram Andrew's Personal Facebook Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm
MOPs & MOEs is proudly sponsored by Teamworks — the performance operations platform trusted by elite military units and professional sports organizations worldwide. Teamworks brings your scheduling, communications, athlete monitoring, and readiness data into one unified system — so your leaders stay informed, your people stay connected, and your unit stays ready. No more scattered spreadsheets or missed messages. Just one platform built for organizations where performance is the mission. Learn more at teamworkstactical.comWe are also supported by TrainHeroic — the coaching and programming platform built for strength and conditioning coaches who train serious athletes. Whether you're programming for a military unit, a tactical team, or individual athletes, TrainHeroic gives you the tools to build and deliver professional training programs, track athlete progress, and communicate directly with your people — all through one app. Your athletes get world-class programming on their phone; you get the visibility to actually coach them. Start your free trial at trainheroic.comNavy Human Performance Is Coming — Commander Kevin Bernstein ReturnsKevin Bernstein is back for round two, fresh into a brand new role as Director of Human Performance for naval aviation on the East Coast. He's six weeks into building something the Navy has never had: a real program of record for the sailors flying, fixing, and fighting from carriers and squadrons across the fleet.What we get into:Why Navy's body composition data is the worst of any service, and why basic readiness tasks like firefighting and damage control on a ship demand a level of fitness the current PT test doesn't measure.The staffing model Kevin's building, borrowed from what's already worked at Naval Special Warfare — sports medicine physicians, physical therapists, strength coaches, dietitians, and cognitive specialists all under one roof, no turf wars, all reporting to the operator's needs.Why staffing needs differ wildly by platform — fighter jets versus cargo aircraft versus rotary wing all create different injury patterns and demand different specialists, and Kevin's building ratios around that instead of a one-size-fits-all model.The credentialing fight nobody talks about — whether embedded providers get privileged through the local hospital or through service leadership that actually understands the mission, and why that distinction will shape every branch's human performance program going forward.Scope of practice in the field — Kevin's blunt take on doing an ultrasound exam in a squadron space versus a sterile OR, and why "industry standard" sports medicine practice shouldn't get flagged just because it's happening outside a hospital.The Federal Acquisition Regulation deep dive — Drew and Alex make the case for a personal services contract exemption for strength coaches, and Kevin confirms he's quoting the same FAR language in the contracts he's writing right now.The actual rollout plan — POM-29 request for 73 new billets, a phased approach starting with strike fighter wings, and a realistic timeline stretching from 2028 to 2033.A surprisingly deep tangent on Pilates, Joseph Pilates' origin story rehabbing WWI soldiers, and why it might become part of the Navy's spine preservation programming.Mentioned in this episode:WPO — Warfighter Performance Optimization, the Pentagon-level effort referenced throughoutVice Admiral Vi and Rear Admiral Hancock — instrumental in standing up the human performance center at Camp Lejeune's School of Infantry EastLong and Strong — the Mops and Moes training program on TrainHeroic Views expressed are those of the speakers and do not represent any official organization.
Ray'n Terry, Chief People Officer at MOO, joined us on The Modern People Leader to discuss why AI should create more space for humanity at work instead of simply increasing productivity. We talked about balancing business performance with employee wellbeing, rethinking performance management in an AI-powered world, and why leaders must intentionally help people reclaim time, creativity, and connection.---- Sponsor Links:
Unlocking the Power of Walking: Feet, Movement, and Health. This episode dives deep into how something as simple as walking is a foundational pillar for health, longevity, and overall well-being. Dr. Karen Litzy welcomes expert insights from Dr. Courtney Conley and Dr. Melissa McDowell, you'll learn practical strategies to optimize foot health, rethink footwear choices, and incorporate walking into everyday life for maximum benefit. In this episode: · Why walking is considered a sixth vital sign and what it means for health assessment · The evidence-based optimal step range and busting myths around 10,000 steps · How foot strength and proper footwear influence pain, injury, and longevity · The biochemistry of walking and its effects on hormones, brain health, and disease prevention · Strategies clinicians and individuals can use to operationalize walking as a therapeutic and preventive tool · Challenging misconceptions about shoes, orthotics, and barefoot walking Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction: Rethinking walking as a vital sign and its importance 02:15 - Walking as a necessity: Beyond exercise, a core biological requirement 03:40 - The myth of 10,000 steps: Evidence-based step targets for different health outcomes 05:04 - Micro walks and ambient activity: How small moments add up 06:31 - Meeting people where they are: Tailoring step goals and activity levels 08:32 - Debunking the 10,000 steps myth and the influence of misinformation 09:56 - The impact of walking on mental health and chronic disease management 11:44 - Foot mechanics and gait: Insights into movement patterns and predicting systemic health 13:15 - The importance of foot strength and preserving foot biomechanics over time 14:32 - Foot health's relationship to fall risk and aging 16:54 - Biological impacts of walking on hormones, brain growth factors, and cognitive function 18:14 - Walking as an intervention for menopause symptoms, depression, and anxiety 19:41 - The power of specific step targets for reducing disease risk 21:01 - How walking should be integrated into chronic pain management 23:34 - The simplicity of behavior change: Making walking accessible for everyone 26:54 - Overcoming pain and fear: Starting with micro walks and building confidence 28:01 - Footwear essentials: Respectting anatomy and choosing proper shoes 30:46 - The influence of shoes on foot health, posture, and systemic health 33:33 - Identifying inappropriate footwear and the role of orthotics 35:45 - Addressing footwear for children and the importance of fit during growth 38:31 - The impact of heel-toe drop and shoe structure on gait and health 41:35 - How indoor shoes and surface changes affect foot and overall health 43:54 - Walking and longevity: Connecting foot strength, fall risk, and lifespan 46:22 - Practical tips for strengthening feet and the dark side of cushioned shoes 50:02 - Tips for clinicians to integrate foot health and walking into practice 53:38 - Business opportunities in community health, workshops, and education 56:23 - Final advice for practitioners interested in promoting walking and foot health 57:59 - The journey of publishing a health-focused book: Tips and encouragement 58:06 - The importance of passion and ongoing learning in health professions 66:35 - Resources, social media, and where to find expert guidance Resources & Links: · Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking and How It Can Improve Your Health and Happiness · Gait Happens - Foot and gait analysis training · Melissa McDowell - Instagram | Website · Courtney Conley Website| Instagram | YouTube More About Dr. Courtney Conley: Dr. Courtney Conley is the founder of Gait Happens, where she pursues her passion for helping as many people as possible reclaim their foot function. As an internationally renowned foot and gait specialist, Dr. Conley teaches both nationally and internationally. She is a chiropractic physician with a BA in Kinesiology, a BA in Human Biology, and a Doctorate in Chiropractic Medicine. Based in Lakewood, CO, Dr. Conley owns and operates Total Health Solutions clinic and Total Health Performance gym, where she leads patient care focused on restoring gait mechanics and resolving foot problems to help people move more easily and pain-free. She is also a founding member of the Healthy Foot Alliance, an international team of practitioners dedicated to promoting the benefits of natural footwear, preventing unnecessary surgeries, and improving foot function to create a stable foundation from the ground up. More about Dr. Milica McDowell: Dr. Milica McDowell holds two Bachelor of Science degrees (Exercise Physiology and Health Promotion, (Montana State University), a master's degree (Physical Therapy, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center), and a Doctorate degree (Physical Therapy, Idaho State University). She served as a university faculty member in Human Performance for nearly a decade, has developed numerous medical education curricula and has been an invited speaker on many national stages, including the American Physical Therapy Association and American College of Sports Medicine's conventions. She has been an invited presenter for numerous professional organizations, and she has delivered over 300 educational lectures at state, regional, and national levels. Dr. McDowell founded Clearwater Physical Therapy, Bluebird Medical Supply Company, and co-founded Epic Fitness, 4C Sports Injury Analytics, and CrossFit Send It. In 2023, Dr. McDowell was recognized as one of the Top 50 Women Leaders in Healthcare by the Women We Admire organization. She has edited textbooks, written several university science courses, and developed professional continuing education courses that are sold in a global marketplace. One of her present interests is the responsible use of AI technologies to produce multimedia learning experiences in professional education. Jane Sponsorship Information: Book a one-on-one demo here Mention the code LITZY1MO for a free month Follow Dr. Karen Litzy on Social Media: Karen's Instagram Karen's LinkedIn Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart: YouTube Website Apple Podcast Spotify SoundCloud Stitcher iHeart Radio
Send us Fan MailThis week on Leave Your Mark EP 480, I sit down with Victor Hall, a leader, educator, and coach who has spent more than 25 years helping athletes, coaches, military personnel, and performance professionals reach their potential.Victor currently serves within the Education and Tactical divisions at EXOS, where he helps shape performance systems, coach development, and strategies focused on optimizing readiness, resilience, and long-term performance. His journey, however, began far from elite sport on a family farm in Northern California, where hard work, responsibility, and problem-solving were daily requirements.In this conversation, Victor shares how the loss of his family's farm shaped his perspective on adversity, the accidental path that led him into strength and conditioning, and the lessons he learned while developing from a quiet, introverted young coach into a respected leader within one of the most influential performance organizations in the world.We discuss:• Growing up on a family farm and the lessons that still guide his work today• The challenges of losing the family farm and rebuilding a new future• Finding strength and conditioning by accident• Learning to coach as an introvert• Building meaningful relationships with athletes and coaches• Leadership, management, and personal growth• The impact of parenthood on coaching philosophy• Working in tactical and military performance environments• Balancing career ambitions with family life• The importance of self-awareness and continuous growthVictor brings a thoughtful, grounded perspective to coaching and leadership that will resonate with anyone working in performance, education, sport, business, or life.Enjoy the conversation.If you liked this EP, please take the time to rate and comment, share with a friend, and connect with us on social channels IG @Kingopain, TW @BuiltbyScott, LI+FB Scott Livingston. You can find all things LYM at www.LYMLab.com, download your free Life Lab Starter Kit today and get busy living https://lymlab.com/free-lym-lab-starter/Please take the time to visit and connect with our sponsors, they are an essential part of our success:www.ReconditioningHQ.comwww.FreePainGuide.com
Brady Holmer has a Master's degree in Human Performance, writes the incredibly popular Physiologically Speaking newsletter, and has recently run a 2:24 marathon. He also trains unconventionally: gone are the 100-mile weeks and in place of them are moderate mileage weeks (60-80) with 10+ hours of cycling. In this episode, we rank the core 3 performance metrics of VO2 Max, Lactate Threshold, and Running Economy and discuss how they interact with physiological resiliency, how they can be improved, and which one is the most important. Extra Resources: Zone 2 Myths, Heart Rate vs. Effort, Heat Training, and Zone 3 (one of our most popular episodes with Brady!) How to Improve the 3 Threshold (LT1, LT2, and VO2 Max) Jason's VO2 Max test (video) How to start strength training Thank you Previnex! Get yourself 15% off your first purchase with code jason15 here. Previnex is a unique supplement company - one that I trust because they do things differently when they don't have to. Their products use clinically proven ingredients, are tested before and after formulation, and they donate vitamins to needy kids. Maybe more importantly, their products do what they say they're going to do. Listen to this feedback about Joint Health Plus! "My ankle and knee pain was completely gone in a week. Amazing!" - Kim "I thought I was on the verge of having to give up running due to severe hip pain and luckily discovered Previnex - complete game changer for me!" - Anna "I am so grateful for Joint Health Plus! As a certified fitness professional and still an extremely active, competitive amateur athlete, I was getting discouraged with an increase in pain simply kneeling down, or bending down to the floor and getting back up while assisting clients, or in my own training! Once deciding to give this product a try, I was floored when I finally noticed I was not bracing in anticipation of pain when I had to kneel down; not whincing in discomfort upon standing! Thank you, Prevenix!" - Jessica Joint Health Plus is so powerful because the main active ingredient is clinically proven to reduce joint pain, reduce joint stiffness, and improve joint flexibility in just 7-10 days. It's also clinically proven, not just tested, but actually proven in double-blinded, placebo- controlled studies to protect joint cartilage from breaking down during exercise. You can get 15% off your first Previnex purchase by using code jason15 at checkout. Visit previnex.com. Previnex offers a 30-day money back guarantee where if you don't feel benefits on their product you get your money back no questions asked. And keep sending in those testimonials. They fire me up! Thank you Lever! Lever is back as a sponsor and I couldn't be more excited. They make a treadmill attachment that reduces your body weight, letting you run more mileage than you typically could with less injury risk. They're also trusted by physical therapists, where they're commonly used during injury recovery so you can keep running with less load and impact. They're a "secret weapon" during rehab of many pro runners. Lever attaches to any treadmill and you hook into it like a harness. It effectively makes you lighter, allowing you to do more running with less risk. So maybe you want to build more mileage, or run hard workouts but you're hesitant because of injury concerns. The pro's have been using Lever for years, letting them get the advantage of more training with fewer injuries. I had the chance to go for a run using Lever and it was deceptively easy to set up and use. All of a sudden, I was running 7min mile pace with the heart rate of 8:30 pace. You can see it in action on our YouTube channel. Go to levermovement.com and use code Strength20 (with a capital S) for 20% off any system!
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