Strength Beyond Age: How Men Can Thrive as They Get Older

Introduction and menu2019s health concerns 0:00

Hey everybody, Dr. Rob Silverman here. I'm with IFBB Pro, Christian Palmer. Nobody has persevered and gained more notoriety in bodybuilding than Christian. He does a great job. he works with a lot of clients in men's health. i'm excited to hear a good lot if he has hacks. Christian, thanks for coming on today. Thanks for having me. It's my pleasure. You know, let's dig right in. Let's talk about our men, our guys, the sex. And let's talk about what do men struggle with that they're too uncomfortable to admit?

I know that opens up Pandora's box. I that it leaves you with a lot of terrain to cover. However, let us pick three or four things that we can talk for our interesting species called us, the men. Absolutely. First and foremost, by nature, as men, we're always taught to suffer in silence, right? It's always, you'll be fine, men don't cry. Don't tell anyone your problems, no one cares anyway. To an extent, that's true in certain circumstances, but the things that we ignore often put us in the hospital sooner or later.

And one of those things a lot of men like to talk about we all know is erectile dysfunction. Now, not every man will suffer from it, There's varying degrees, we'll say. Right. And part of the problem is that, you know, men are embarrassed that people are going to laugh at them, right? If your doctor's a male, hopefully, and I find in most cases, the doctor is actually there to help you, all right. But it's really ego. It's like you got to get out of your own way and thinking like, oh, I'm always this tough guy.

Nothing's ever wrong, because that's bullshit. There are absolutely problems that men face that we need to make ourselves comfortable with telling. So erectile dysfunction, when does it happen? Sometimes people are in a marriage for 10 years, 20 years. And sometimes it's the attraction to the partner. But I always say, regardless of what you think the reason is, get it looked at, because it can be a sign of cardiovascular problems. Without question. Great point. ED, I think, the numbers are over 50% of men over fifty years old suffer from forms of ED.

ED can be a prelude to cardiovascular disease, clotting, circulation, really great point. Interesting, ED is also a... early sign of what we call the parasympathetic nervous system decline, because the para-sympathy nervous is in charge of the erection. The sympathetic is charge the rest of this stuff. So you should definitely get checked out and you go to a doctor who looks at the body as a whole and the integration of systems. ED is an interesting thing. I've had a few patients walk in and they suffer from ED and I made a recommendation and said, yeah, you know what, Rob, Christian, I can't go to the doctor.

It's a female. Well, it is a condition. I promise you nobody's going to laugh at you. Nobody's gonna judge you, but that's great starting point.

ED, cardiovascular risk, and getting checked 3:04

A lot of men now are working out because we know longevity is the key conversation. it's the insightful conversation of 2025 slash 2026 pending when the podcast comes out. Interestingly enough, muscle mass, Gabriella Lyon, the longevity organ. Talk to us about some things that men should understand about thriving when they age that their doctor won't talk to them about, i.e. muscle mass. Okay, so first and foremost, sarcopenia is a real thing. And saropenia, for those of you who don't know, is the loss of muscle as you age, often attributed to a decline in hormones, and father time is undefeated.

A doctor will often say, because I find this It annoys me at this point, just because I come across it so often, but I have clients that come to me and say, hey, I went to my doc. I told them about my lethargy, about brain fog, the fact that I'm having trouble burning fat, building muscle. And they're like, oh, that's just part of getting older. Just accept it. Essentially, this is your new lease on life. And I think, again, that's BS because I have clients in their 60s and 70s who put on muscle.

Yes, it's harder than when you were 30, but it is still possible. And also, at the very least, if you're not going to put muscle on, work on not losing any more. You know what's required for that resistance training and not you know this isn't really so much for the men more so the women kind of do this where they go in with the pink weights and think that's enough but for guys it's like you got to push yourself based on your own abilities. And stop don't live in the past because this is how guys pursue it and then get hurt and be like all see you know you shouldn't lift weights after 4050 whatever is that stop chasing the man you used to be no one cares how much you use the bench okay and I always say like work on.

your lower body, your back, like your posterior muscles, you're lower-body, because every guy will get chest and biceps in, right? It's always the bro muscles. Every guy thinks that a chest in bicep is what makes him a man. And what's really true is that the more muscle you have in your legs, the better equipped you are to handle everyday tasks, lifting things, maintaining your balance if you slip, and also those areas, those legs in the back contain more muscles in them and a larger amount of muscle mass.

So you talk about nurturing your metabolic function, make sure your metabolism, because everyone talks about metabolism these days, is elevated, build muscle, muscle's the most metabolically active tissue in the body. and besides you know your brain and you got to build it. So clearly that longevity muscle lower limbs now you and I both know most people when we walk into a gym they're doing upper body so they'll come to the gym four days for weights three days will be upper-body they will do some sort of upper bodies split and one day they attribute to legs you probably would suggest something a little different So my recommendation is always do what works for your lifestyle.

What do I mean by that? Some guys like to do the bro spits, the bodybuilding style, which I'm no stranger to, of course. However, if let's say for whatever reason, you only do resistance training two days a week. Well, If you do chest and biceps one day, then you've got to either cram a bunch of things in the next day or there's muscles that you're just not gonna work, which is not ideal. So you could do full body each day, you can do an upper lower, where it's like, hey, I'll do some chest pressing, and I do rows.

And a tip for you guys, is I would do a two to one ratio rows versus pressing. Because a lot of guys when they get older, they do lots of chest and they have poor posture. Just from years of either working at a desk, being in forward head, forward neck, exactly. and you end up reinforcing those issues versus doing more rowing, opening up your chest, helping you with posture, maintain your postural muscles, and it allows you to be stronger when you have to lift things, appliances around the house, whatever it might be.

And the same thing with lower body. So let's say you do upper one day, two times the amount of pulling as you do pushing and then with the lower body this is also another misconception that I think guys have is that they'll say well you know you're not supposed to squat after a certain age maybe so maybe with a bar on your back doesn't feel good when you are 55 if you've got poor hip mobility your knees are kind of aching find a machine or movements that work like step ups lunges And if you

Muscle loss, aging, and training for longevity 7:31

have to do a squat, you don't have go, as they say, ass to grass. You can go just parallel to the floor, maybe a little above that. But a lot of guys end up having issues with their knees and hips because they don' use these ranges of motion. Especially in American culture, everything in this culture is 90 degrees. The toilet seats, the car seats the restaurants. Yeah, in the Asian culture. A lot us have gone to take out restaurants and you see them smoking a cigarette outside. They're in a deep squat and they're just hanging out there.

you know in sometimes you in japan when they eat dinner they sit in um on their knees or on the shins and it's it In the clients that I've coached over the years, the ones that tend to do the best by way of having healthy knees, healthy hips, are the one that access those ranges of motion. Matter of fact, earlier this week, I just had one of my guys who was having a little bit of knee pain, and I'm like, look man, your mobility's not the greatest. Low hanging fruit, every morning when you get up, just sit in a deep squat to the base of your ability for one to two, maybe three minutes.

And just allow those tissues to open up. There's a concept that I'll tell men, it's that if there's range of motion you're not great in, meaning your mobility is not sufficient enough to allow you to access it easily, typically the more time you spend there, likely the better you'll get over time. So sitting in a deep squat is a great way to start yourself on improving that range emotion. And then use that to build muscle. People talk about functional, I wanna be functional. Access that ranging motion however you can safely, and you'll improve your function.

Some real takeaways there. One, going back a little bit, stop chasing the man you used to be. You know, you've heard the expression, in a day. Hey, Rob, do you remember in the day? You're talking we were 22 years old. We're 60 now. That's your son's age. I mean, that's a lifetime ago. It's two lifetimes ago, so that really resonated with me. Number two, the idea of, yeah, squatting, right, but you don't want to load your back. And you probably don't want to load your back after 50 because of the compression.

However, you can still do an air squat. You can do a TRX squat, You probably can a goblet squat so you could add all these squats, these movements. That's a very basic thing. So for me, One of the things I've done and, you know, listening to you was a little hard for me with my torticollis to do a lot of squatting with any kind of weight and I don't want to too much in front because I lean forward already. You've got the forward head posture. I been doing a lotta farmer's carries, farmer walks. Found them to be really good.

So I'm gonna ask you, let's do this rapid fire now. Give me your five favorite exercises for men and if it differs for women, make that the second question. Woo, okay. Seated cable row. Pull-ups, whichever version you can make work, whether band assisted, machine assisted are great because getting your arms overhead is great for accessing range of motion and you're not pressing, which can be hard for guys after a certain age. A lot of guys end up with shoulder issues. The other one is a rear foot elevated split squat.

I love that because you get a two-fold benefit. It's active mobility work because when you are under load, pushing your body into a range of motion, not forcing it, but having it a little assistance with resistance. One, you get a good amount of work on the glutes. Good amount or work in the quads. It's unilateral work. So if you have any strength discrepancies, it allows you to start addressing those. And it's just hard and a great way to build muscle and strength. Another, so that's, what did I say?

That's seated cable row, pull up, rear foot elevated Swiss squat, that three. The other is, I mean, farmer's walks are actually good. You like that? Yeah, it's, you know what, and I find myself recommending some carries because, especially unilaterally loaded, over the years we get, yeah, we We tend to get stronger on one side than another, and that could be because of old injuries, it could because just a lack of using muscles, or some movements that you do very often make you more proficient with one than the other.

So it's a good way to say, okay, well, I realize I'm a lot stronger this side, so let me balance that out however I see fit. And I usually don't recommend pressing, because guys will always get that in. You never have to tell a guy, go get chest pressing. He's already done it. Then I would say Tricep work, and the reason why I say triceph work is that a lot of us spend time in the elbows flex position, texting, computer, eating, driving, getting arm extension. A lot guys end up with tennis elbow, golfer's elbow.

And they get plenty of flexion, but not enough extension, so I like triceps work. What tricep work? Anything that feels good. Could be a rope press down. It could be, you know, skull crushers, But getting elbow extension is a great thing. And then hollow holds. That's tough. Yes. And there's modified versions, like what they call dead bugs, which is basically not extending your arms back and extending you legs out, but almost looking like, it sounds kind of bad, a dead dog on his back, right? The arms are straight up, the legs are just straight-up, pressing you low back down.

Why do I recommend those? Because abs, guys will do sit-ups, you know, till the cows come home. I can't believe I just used that statement. Feel like my mom. They'll do crunches, but they don't work the deep abdominal muscles. And those are worked very efficiently with something like a hollow hold. Why is that important? Because a lot of guys end up with hip issues. Some of those, are due to poor abdominal strength. That also gives that sort of chest out, butt out posture, where their erectors are always really tight.

Guys are like, oh, my low back's always fired up. Sometimes it's because the abs and the back, that team is not working as a team. The abs are out to lunch and back's like, all right, well, I'm a postural muscle. I'll just stay on. When you get them stronger, now you have a better ability to rotate and move and lift things without hurting yourself. So that would be my five. – So the rolling, it is interesting because obviously the backs is a powerful muscle and also rolling will cause you to have retraction in your shoulders.

It's a pastoral stability move as well as in addition to being an overall muscle move. I saw you talk. Now, you said that forward foot split squat. Is that a Bulgarian split-squat technique? Yes. Yeah, yeah. Rear foot elevated split squad. Okay. So those are great. Those are hard as all heck. Hopefully, we'll get a B-roll on that because most people won't know what a Bulgaria split is. We'll call it a Christian Palmer split squads, because Why not? A couple of really good points on the carries about the unilateral carry.

Now, what does the carry mimic? The carry mimics like walking in an airport, which I do every weekend, carrying a bag. I can't tell you how many people you want to watch, lack of muscle mass, watch people try and take their suitcase and put it above their head in the luggage rack. And I'm not talking about people who are vertically challenged. you'll see that people have trouble because they don't have range of motion. It's hard, especially pulling it down. I mean, here we are, we get in New York, everybody stands up in the plane and what happens?

Down comes that luggage because the person can't control it. So you're right about the unilateral and those muscles that you try to engage in unilaterally or the oblique muscles. which are that tie, that balance that you talked about between the front and the back of the abs. So that was a really good lead in.

Best exercises for men and workout structure 15:25

And you know what? I got to add one more. I know this makes it six, and I said I wasn't going to recommend pressing, but I'm going recommend that guys focus on certain type of pressing. A lot of guys end up having shoulder and not every guy. This is not you got to try it out. And I'm not saying that overhead pressing is bad for everyone. It's not bad. If it doesn't hurt. Good for you. But speaking to your point of getting the carry ons out of the luggage bay. If you do something like an incline press, that gets you closer to overhead without going overhead, if you can't do overhead.

And for whatever reason I experienced this, I've asked clients and other strength coaches that I have had conversations with, for some reason, inclines just feels better. In my opinion, It's, like I said, it's a good happy medium between overhead pressing, if you have shoulder issues, and flat pressing which, sure, is important, you know, to do, but it is not as essential as I think the other movements are. But again, If you want to make yourself strong and get yourself somewhat close to overhead type movements without actually getting there, something like a high angle or a regular incline press I make is a thing to add in if your gonna do pressing.

Which we know guys will, so. They love to press. They loved to curl. Monday, man, you can't get a bench press, but you get to squat rack. You can get an Olympic rack, always. Sessions usually last about an hour, like a personal training session, an exercise session. And in that session you probably want to incorporate weight training, some form of cardiovascular training hit training and also some flexibility training. How would you delineate the time for each one of those things. That would be weight training, flexibility, and cardiovascular.

So I would say first, strategize how much time you actually have to allocate. Let's say it's an hour. I'd say prioritize the compound movements first. Your rows, your pressing, split squats, lower body push movements, and then anything single joint after that, whether it's hamstring curls, bicep curls triceps extensions afterward. And always do a warmup and not the walk in the gym and do this kind of crap that guys do, right? That old rear delt stretch that doesn't do anything. Do an actual dynamic warm up.

You guys can look up world's greatest stretch, that's a great way to Do dynamic, because static stretching does not create lasting change, nor does it really heat up and warm up your muscles. Before you move, you want to heat your muscle up to allow greater mobility. It feels better. Blood flow also helps with preventing injury. and it gets you ready to press. So something like world's greatest stretch, so that'll be first. Then doing some athletic work, hopping and jumping. This is a lot of thing that guys don't do as the years go on, right?

It's just most people, let's say, never sprint after probably they get into their career right after college. It just people just don t do it. Something like just jumping, hoping that's a good thing to develop. Resilience and flexibility or resilience and reactivity in your tissues, then go into the resistance training and compound movements first, single joint second. And then your cool down can be your cardio, whether that's hit training, like something on an assault bike, 10 seconds on 20 to 30 or 40 seconds off.

Not an Assault Bike. It's the devil machine. Come on. Tell the truth. Yeah, yeah, it is. Uh, but I've man, I love that thing. My favorite part of it is always when it's over, or even the rower rowing erg is a great movement for hit training. Or if you want to just go for a walk afterward, that's, you know, of course good as well. Getting steps in is great way to, to address weight management and. You know, or zone two, you know push yourself to get my favorite, my 60 year old favorite. So let's get you speedy now.

We'll do it in a New York second, like 10, 15 seconds. Tell me whether you like it or not. Crossfit? Don't like. Okay. Powerlifting? If your body feels good, sure. If you're a little bit older, don't. Obviously, bodybuilding, muscle hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is great because it can always work for you. You can make it work regardless of what your bodies going through. All right, here's an open-ended question. It's your time to shine. Are you ready? Here we go. Our bodybuilders athletes. Ooh, I don't think bodybuilding in and of itself is an athletic endeavor.

I think athletics are sports, running, jumping, things like that. I, think you can be an athletic bodybuilder, which I consider myself, but I don't think the, I. Don't. Think the endeavor of bodybuilding is an. Athletic sport, right? Some people call it the sport. It's an endeavor. We'll call that Olympic lifting. Do I like. That if your body feels okay doing it, let's talk about the guys over 40 over 50, probably not the best idea. Yeah, we lost our flexibility in a range of motion. And that's a great segue into somebody over 40, how many days a week male should they be doing weight training to recover appropriately and not raise their inflammatory markers?

I'd say at a minimum three days, three to four days is a good place to be because it gives you enough time to recovery. You got three day, you can space them out however you like. I think five days, if you're a really healthy person and you've built yourself up to it, that's good. If you are a couch potato, getting right back into it. You know the whole all or nothing, which I never recommend. Do not go from nothing to five-days. It's just you'll be sore. just get annoyed with the time commitment because it's not always easy to transition to that much movement from nothing.

So I would say start with three, and then if you can do four, do five. It's up in the air. If you like it and you could make it work, sure. But I think four is a good place to be. I'm going to put you in an inside view of a conversation I've had with a couple of my friends. educated guys who are trying to hold on, get back into shape, whatever you want to call it. We were having a conversation. They're still doing body parts. they're not doing functional movements. So one of them said, yeah, I did my chest.

I do 12 to 15 sets of chest, 60 year old guy. i saw you roll your eyes. so obviously that poses an issue. we're talking to the public here, they go into the gym three times a week, 50 year-old men, How many sets do you want them to do of weight resistance? So per, I mean, per body part or movement, depending on how you, you know, pursue it. But if we're talking hypertrophy, man, this is such a, it really depends. If you have very little exercise history, then I, mean anywhere between four to six sets per movement in total throughout the week.

So for rows, four to six sets, and that could be two exercises, three sets each, right? You could do more, of course. I'm basically giving you a good happy medium or towards the minimum side. And for your lower body, between six to eight sets is a great place to be. Okay. Do I think most people are capable of more than that? If you're getting sleep, if your nutrition is good, meaning you are prioritizing protein, you aren't doing too much of the inflammatory and or, we'll just call them less than conducive to your goal foods like alcohol consumption very often.

I thought you were going to say Doritos. You know what, because this is a topic that I feel is very important for guys to understand is that As I mentioned before, don't chase the man you used to be. And I think a lot of guys will listen to this and say, oh, yeah, I'm going to get to the gym. and then they don' do it. Part of it is all of you guys listening right now, Are you proud Think about what's the most important thing to you in life, if that's your family and let's say building business, because that ends up being the case for a lot of guys.

Getting yourself fit allows you to do that better. One, you're a great example for your Right number from believer that every man should be his kids superhero and if you are not fit you. Are not respected as much as if. You are fit I'm not saying your family doesn't love you guys get to certain age and say oh yeah, you know my wife it's fine. She loves me the way I am but would she not be even more attracted to you if he were more fit. Because just like the inverse are you not more attractive to your wife if she's more fitting takes care of herself.

So consider. Who do I wanna influence? Who is most important to me and what's most to important me in life? And as Mark Bell says, strength is never a weakness. Being stronger, being more fit. When you go to the beach, every guy wants to take his shirt off and be proud of what he sees. If you're not, you can be.

Training frequency, sets, and recovery 24:58

So get started. And when it comes to managing your health, again, as guys, we put things off, and wait and tell. The doc says, yeah, we got a problem now. So don't get to that point. Get your blood work done. This is something I tell guys every single week. I have my clients do bloodwork, assess it, a basic metabolic panel. That's a good place to start, but you should cut you off. Before we go down there, you had some gold in there. There were some real nuggets get into shape, get your muscularity, your strength, be exemplary of you know, a superhero.

And it's true, every Marvel superhero is fit, both men and women. Yep. Now we don't have to get Jack like Hugh Jackman. I mean, he looks great or Superman. These guys are gaining 30 and 40 pounds. So I hear it all the time. Every guy says, I'm tired. Hmm. The answer is testosterone replacement therapy. Football is yours. There's a wide opening end zones. We're straight ahead. TRT. is a life-changing thing. There are so many guys that, like I've mentioned before, a lot of times doctors will not say this.

And there are still doctors that are stuck in the, I mean, decades old, if you want to call it research, because testosterone replacement therapy does not cause cancer. I'm saying this right now, okay? In fact, it will lower your chance of getting prostate cancer if you, again, this is TRT, not getting it from the guy at the gym, as he told you to use 500 milligrams. Oh, that must be good. No, no, doctor prescribed and monitored. Okay. The smart way is guys will say, they'll associate it with what we've seen in baseball in tour de France and, you know, all the areas that get, um, Yeah, they get the stigma and some guys will think like, Oh, isn't that cheating?

No, it's not cheating. Your body already makes this. If your decline, I shouldn't say if when your declined happens, just replacing what was already there. So, over roughly 40, let's say 50 years old, a man's chance of cardiac events goes up by almost 50% because testosterone goes down, estrogen goes. Down. This is another thing. Estrogen is extremely important for men and your body needs testosterone in order to produce the right amount of estrogen. And estrogen is cardio protected. It helps with cardiovascular pliability.

Our sexual function, our libido is mainly based on estrogen. Without estrogen, you're not going to want sex. And a lot of guys are like, oh, it must be just the testosterone. No, It's the estrogen! So the first thing you do is get a blood test. Get your free and total testosterone checked. Great. Get your, I mean you can get the SSBG check, but get your inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein. Get you, your PSA, your prostate specific antigen checked and make sure that those numbers are squared away because you cannot hide from what's inside.

Or as I like to say, know your numbers. I'll ask guys, when was the last time you got a blood test? Man, it's been a while. How long is a wild? Probably like maybe five years, six years. Get it, especially when you're getting 40 and 50 and you telling me your sleep is poor. Now here's another factor when you're overweight this is the guys who you know you got the belly you snoring at night your wife tells you you always you wake up choking you want to talk about high blood pressure. having sleep apnea is one of the leading drivers of high blood pressure along with the other metabolic issues.

So if we combine declining testosterone with obesity, right? Maybe you have poor insulin sensitivity and now you sleep Apnea. I mean, these are all the greatest hits for metabolic syndrome and guys get to a certain age where the heart attack happened out of nowhere. There's always a reason and the easiest place to start is get your blood work done. Get a comprehensive panel. get those markers looked at, and then if things are not where they need to be, address them. And then I gotta say this other thing is that your doctor's not always gonna tell you exactly what you should hear.

What I mean by that is they'll say, I've had so many physicians tell my clients, oh, you don't need testosterone replacement therapy, You look healthy. Doc, said I'm lethargic, my libido is poor, I'm having trouble burning fat, building muscle, and they're doing the things. They're eating well, they are trying to get sleep. My dad is even having this issue now where his sleep is poor and I know it's because of his hormones. Testosterone controls so many things, so when you have all these factors, a lot of guys will say, oh, you know, maybe I should just try intermittent fasting because that seems to be the new fad.

I am going to do keto. Chasing fads will not get you what you want. but optimizing your health, starting with blood work, are you actually trying to get sleep or are staying up late watching Netflix? Are you eating foods that are conducive to health? And when guys are like, I don't know what to eat. I'm like really? Okay, instead of going out to Burger King, maybe have a lunch where there's some rice or fruit and a lean source of protein. We all know to what eat, it's about doing it. And consistency.

Talking to the guy who is listening to this thing. All right, all right. I know you guys are telling me everything I need to do. Where do I start? If you're not exercising, start exercising. And that could be exercising in your house because guys will say, I don't have time to go to. If. You work out in. Your house for 20 minutes. Maybe you start with body weight squats, walking lunges.

TRT, blood work, and metabolic health 30:48

Push-ups, hollow holds like I recommended. Superman's where you lay on your stomach, lift your arms and legs up. 20 minutes, you kick your own butt, get as much done as you can, that's a workout. And then go for a walk, a 20 or 30 minute walk. Once you feel comfortable doing that a few days a week, maybe you start to take it to the gym now. Because now you have equipment, more options, other people that are there, because working out in your basement can be boring. And what do you do with food? You start by prioritizing protein.

What do I mean by that? When you look at your plate of food, protein should take up the largest amount of space on the plate. Just start there. I don't care about your macros. Don't I care getting the next best protein powder with the 211 ratio of BCAA. Stop with all that. just start by prioritizing protein and minimize the things that when you look at them you're like I probably shouldn't have that. Don't those things or have less of them. They know. So I really want to sidecar what you said about the lab tests and the traditional medical doctor versus the integrated functional doctor.

Why a normal lab test may miss the real problem. Traditional labs are designed to detect disease, not dysfunction. You can feel terrible and still fall within a statistical normal range, which is what we were talking about. So I'm really piggybacking on something that you said. Advanced tools, like a gut immune mapping, testosterone testing, free testosterone, let you see what's going on and happening years before a diagnosis, a year before the crash occurs. So I really like the idea that you're recommending the testing, especially for cardiovascular disease.

You mentioned it, blood pressure. Number one reason for cardio vascular disease, over 50% of people that have a heart attack have normal lipid function on the day they have heart attacks. So lastly, protein. It's an interesting thing that people used to say in my era, and I've got you beat by a couple of decades minimum, too much protein would damage the kidneys. And you got to remember something, we ate a ton of carbs and no fat because we thought fat made you fat. We know it's high sugar, not necessarily carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates, they are not an essential nutrient, but they have a lot of macronutrients that are critical, polyphenols, et cetera. So it's really interesting because you as a trainer, look what we're talking about. You're taking about exercise. We're talk about lifestyle hacks. You're talking about blood labs. Look where your performance has increased, look where you're teaching has increase. And I attribute a lot of this to the bodybuilders out there. You know, there used to be a stigma and I apologize to anybody that if I offend them, it's not my intention.

Bodybuilder's were, you know they just lifted weights, and that was it. When you hear Dorian Yates. a champion, a Jay Cutler, Lee Haney, Frank Zane. I mean, talk about mind-body connection. They have PhD knowledge in nutrition and exercise, and you are now the byproduct of it. It's really, really exciting. You're doing a great job is what I'm trying to say in a nutshell. Thank you, thank you. And I'm going to say one thing is that I don't consider myself a trainer, Men's Health Specialist. Why do I say that?

Because a lot of times people will think, trainer you spend time in the gym coaching people, but what I do is help men get lean, build muscle, and build unshakable confidence and conquer nutrition. side card, we'll say, with blood work assessment and teaching them about what true longevity is. There's so much information out there these days that guys get caught up in, right? And now with GLP-1s on the table, now a lot of guys are thinking, well, I can just skip over all the foundational work and then just go to Wigovia or trisepatitis or, you know, No matter what route you choose, the foundational work still has to be done.

That's right. You got to sweat. Yeah, exactly. you have to eat the right food. It's always harder in the beginning. The first step is always the hardest. you want to get to the point where you almost look at it as a vitamin. And I noticed this happens with every single guy I train that actually, every guy coach that sees their goals through to their conclusion where we say, hey, they come on board and they've got high blood pressure, poor lipids, erectile dysfunction. They look in the mirror and not proud of the guy that they are.

Right? They've Their libido is in the toilet, and they just wish they could lose weight like they did in their 30s. And I'm like, look, man, you're not that guy anymore, but you can be the next best badass 2.0 version of yourself. That comes with work. But when you get to the point where you've done the initial foundational work, get yourself in a regimen that works for your lifestyle, And you start to prioritize your own health because some guys, a lot of my guys are high level guys. They're high performance men, executives, CEOs.

And they'll often put business in the way as an excuse for not exercising. Oh, I'm too busy. Like, are you too that down the road you're gonna have a heart attack because you not getting sleep? You can see your face is red. High blood pressure is definitely happening. And I had a conversation with a guy once who said, oh man, life is just so busy and stressful and I just, I can't make time for this. I said are you okay with the fact that some other man might walk your daughter down the aisle? And he said he's like, what do you mean?

I'm like. Well, look at your blood work. Even your doctor told you this, and I don't even necessarily agree with everything they said, but I do agree, with their assessment of your Blood Work. Like, you're on the road to a heart attack, my man. I'm like, if you don' change something, there's a very real possibility that maybe it's stroke. But I dont see you living a Very, very long time. Are you okay with that? And I am like... Who's most important to you? Because when you look back at life, building business, yes, it's important.

But you're going to get to a point in life where you are going say remember when, and you want to be around long enough to have those experiences. And I said, when get up every day and tell yourself, Man, you know, I'm just I've got to get so much work done. Think about your daughter. She wants you around. Don't you want to pass on the things that you've learned to her? Right. Be a good example, because what she sees you do, to some degree, she'll take after and she will respect what you're doing and say, You know what?

Fitness. And I had this happen with my clients, David. And his, I mean, this story kind of tugs at my heartstrings is that I've known him and his wife for probably about 12 years. And I have coached him for, it's been about 10 years now. He's just, we have great dynamic and the guy has, he's lost over 50 pounds. His built muscle, his body, He used to have herniations that would put him in spasm. Maybe he'd be in bed for a week. What he does for his career, is he has to sit a lot.

Starting simple and leading by example 38:08

It just is what it is. But a few years ago, his wife was diagnosed with cancer, unfortunately. And now David had made drastic changes over the last five, six years, to the point now where he's like, man, if I don't get my exercise in, I just don' feel right. I call it, it's his vitamin now. When his life is diagnosed, of course, its a strain on the family, and his daughter never exercised, ever. Not that she didn't like it. getting ready for college at that point in her life where it just wasn't on her radar.

So David made such a drastic change that his wife started to notice, all right, and she started exercise. This is actually before she was diagnosed, just started too. And his daughter started the exercise too, he's like, oh, I've noticed, you know, she's coming down in the basement gym and running on the treadmill. She's, You know I'm gonna get her a trainer because I want to make sure she knows what she is doing. So she decides to do a 5K, just out of nowhere. He's like, oh, she told me she wanted to a do 5k.

I'm like that's awesome. And she had a shirt made and the shirt said for mom. She wore that shirt when she ran the race and she did a phenomenal job. Now she exercises like clockwork every day. and I told David, I said, you realize man, it's because of you. your commitment to becoming the best version of yourself. You put your daughter in a healthier place. Now she understands exercise is important. It's fun. And now your wife is also exercising and thankfully she's doing very well. She's gone through some chemo, but she is on the upside and she healing and getting healthier.

I said it's because you chose to be the best version of yourself, that had a positive influence on your family, and now you all have this thing you share, is your love for exercise. And I want to instill that in every man who listens to this is that, you are the linchpin for your families. You are The Rock, You Are The Mountain, And your Family, what they see you do, they will take after. Your kids do more, your kids will mimic more of what you then follow what say. And if you show them that exercise is fun, it's something we do because it keeps us healthy, and it is a way to bring yourself together as a family.

I have clients now who go on weekly hikes or bi-weekly hiks with their family, And before it was the kids were playing video games, you know, one of the kid goes to a soccer game because they got practice, the husband's got to work on part of a weekend. But now, every weekend, or every other weekend some of them are like, we're going on our family hike. And they enjoy it. allows the guy to step away from the hustle and bustle of work and rejuvenate his mind. Him and the wife get to walk together and talk, share time together with the kids, and now they're out in nature, right, disconnecting from their phones.

So, you know, if there's anything I leave you guys with, it's Commit to becoming the healthiest and best version of yourself because it'll have a positive influence on everyone that you care about. And if you want to be around for a long time to look back and say, remember when, you've got to start taking care of your self now. Yeah, absolutely. What a great close. You got take care yourself. The best asset you have is your health, including your family, of course. Christian Palmer, Rob Silverman.

Hope you enjoyed it. Proven Health Alternatives.