Experts Exercise & Strength Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss · 44 episodes · 772 sourced insights

What Tim Ferriss says about exercise & strength

Everything Tim Ferriss and guests said about exercise & strength across 44 episodes — each point linked to the exact second on YouTube. Sourced expert opinion, not medical advice.

Exercise & Strength

In their own words

Huberman says he has doubled down on five foundational categories that must be re-upped every 24 hours: sleep, nutrients (macro and micro), movement, light (especially morning sunlight), and relationships.
00:05:08Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
He reversed his belief that you cannot train for endurance and strength at once; the data on concurrent training convinced him you can pursue multiple adaptations simultaneously, so he rebuilt his program to target one specific adaptation each day.
00:22:50Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
He details his full weekly split: Sunday endurance hike/jog, Monday legs, Tuesday sauna/cold plunge recovery, Wednesday cardio or torso, Thursday torso or cardio, Friday short VO2 max work, Saturday smaller muscle groups.
00:24:34Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
Tibialis (tib) raises, learned from Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy), eliminated his right-side sciatica, fixed shin splints, and let him run pain-free; he also discovered he never actually had flat feet, just weak tibs.
00:33:01Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
Dedicated neck training improved his posture, eye contact, confidence, and injury resilience; he does it lying on a bench and stomach with a towel-wrapped plate.
00:50:39Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
His sleep stack remains magnesium threonate, theanine, and apigenin, with added myo-inositol (900 mg) to help fall back asleep; if forced to pick two, he chooses magnesium threonate and apigenin.
01:15:41Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
Rhodiola rosea (200 mg pre-workout) is his standout recent performance addition because it reduces perceived effort and post-exercise energy crash without suppressing cortisol, unlike Ashwagandha.
01:36:34Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
Huberman has been monitoring sperm parameters and freezing sperm, and credits Ferriss with the idea that optimizing for fertility is a proxy for optimizing overall vitality.
01:44:32Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
The circuits devoted to movement plus those devoted to vision make up roughly 75 percent of the human brain.
00:21:12Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
After about 25-30 minutes of repetitive exercise, central pattern generators engage so the movement becomes near-automatic, like an autopilot button appearing on the steering wheel.
00:28:43Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
Protein synthesis peaks around 48 hours after a resistance workout but is held for additional days, so a muscle group does not need to be hit every 48 hours.
00:59:29Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
Charles Poliquin's caution: resistance training beyond 60 minutes raises cortisol, harming sleep and recovery, so Huberman keeps lifts to an hour or less.
01:02:43Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
A University of Houston study found 'soleus pushups' (seated calf raises) done while sitting significantly improved insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake.
01:10:48Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
The soleus is about 1 percent of body musculature but can account for over 15 percent of daytime energy expenditure.
01:11:54Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
Gulping fluid signals the bladder to urgently urinate, so sip your last evening drink, but gulp large amounts of water first thing in the morning when the kidney functions differently.
01:18:23Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
Morning light raises cortisol about 50 percent above baseline; late-shifted cortisol is associated with depression and immune disruption.
01:21:03Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
Neuropod cells in the gut signal sugar, fatty acids, and amino acids via the vagus nerve to the brain's dopamine centers, driving cravings and satiety.
01:29:06Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
An Israeli study found 20 minutes of afternoon sun on bare skin three times a week significantly increased free testosterone, estrogen, and libido; the skin acts as an endocrine organ via the P53 pathway.
01:53:41Dr. Andrew Huberman · The Tim Ferriss Show · Mar 2023
Glenn has been legally deaf since age 10 from scarlet fever; an audiologist later told him he had been reading lips for at least 40 years without realizing it.
00:38:53Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
After Urban Cowboy, Glenn essentially never had to audition again, and he turned down lead TV roles to stay in Idaho and focus purely on the craft of acting rather than show-business politics.
00:30:29Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
On The Leftovers, director Mimi Leader said his seven-page monologue take was 'a master's class in acting'; Glenn was so fully inside the role he couldn't even direct or watch himself.
01:05:35Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
Glenn's core acting breakthrough is complete spontaneity: being so present in the now that you have no future or plans in a scene, which he says gives film performances their electricity.
01:11:18Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
At 85, Glenn does breath-hold meditations three times a week, currently holding for 1:40 with a personal record of 4 minutes 15 seconds, aiming for a two-minute hold by age 86.
01:33:54Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
Glenn met his wife Carol in a New York movie theater roughly 55 years ago; they sat through the entire film twice without touching, and he knew immediately he had fallen in love.
01:47:31Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
Laurence Olivier told Glenn the single thing you need to make it in the business is pure tenacity: 'develop very strong jaw muscles, learn how to bite on and not let go.'
02:01:04Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
Francis Ford Coppola gave Glenn a role at the end of Apocalypse Now because he believed Glenn had saved his life in the Philippines by keeping him from drowning in a river.
00:16:13Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
Burt Lancaster commissioned a dinnerware set from Carol after learning the only other ceramic artist whose work he owned was Picasso.
00:21:29Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
Glenn's father, a Snap-on Tools executive who rose from poverty, hit him only once in his life, and advised him to never set deadlines on pursuing his dream.
00:50:19Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
Glenn converted to Judaism so his wife would not 'have a target on her back' that he didn't share; his Jewish name is Abraham Ephraim Ben Abraham.
00:51:22Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
Glenn was certified in scuba diving by Jim Stewart, the legendary Scripps Institution dive master who wrote the syllabus for the Navy SEAL teams.
01:39:10Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
Rudolf Nureyev told Glenn he was a more believable cowboy than John Travolta, and corrected Glenn that he was Tatar, not Russian.
01:54:16Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
Glenn's morning routine includes a strong ear massage learned in a Tai Chi seminar and humming eight times with back teeth together to stimulate the vagus nerve.
01:20:39Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
'Baby fit,' which Glenn does each morning, is a movement practice he says Russian special ops use, rolling over using legs then arms the way a baby would.
01:23:55Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
His workout includes five rounds totaling 100 kettlebell swings and 100 push-ups, using 16-24 kg bells after retiring his 52 lb bell due to a muscle injury.
01:25:31Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
While filming in Thailand, Glenn crossed illegally into Burma at Three Pagodas Pass in the Golden Triangle and trained Muay Thai with fighters there.
01:44:55Scott Glenn · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 2024
On 'unoptimized living,' Tim explains he is simultaneously optimizing (Occam's Protocol strength training, recently gaining 10-15 lbs of muscle) and deliberately deoptimizing other areas, arguing you can't optimize everything and life is about trade-offs.
00:02:50Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
Tim names 'digital emotional surrogacy' as the under-discussed trend, predicting photorealistic VR avatars and companions like Replika will become a replacement—not just a supplement—for human interaction within about two years.
00:41:30Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
To counteract the loneliness epidemic as an introvert, Tim books trips and time with friends/family roughly six months in advance, putting money behind them to exploit the sunk-cost fallacy so he won't cancel.
00:44:15Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
Tim predicts an explosion of new 'religions' (some masquerading as CrossFit, veganism, etc.) plus renewed uptake of Abrahamic faiths, arguing everyone worships something and the most at-risk people don't know what they worship.
00:53:46Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
On longevity, if forced to pick one form of exercise, Tim chooses resistance/weight training, because progressive resistance is easy to quantify and weight loss isn't sustainable without upgrading underlying muscle/mitochondrial 'machinery.'
00:55:23Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
Tim details his low-back pain protocol: Fisher Traction door device, internal/external rotation work, terminal hip extension when walking, Hyperice foam rolling, a portable pillow, and proper chair ergonomics for L5 stenosis from a bulging disc.
01:11:50Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
On interviewing, Tim reveals he gives guests final cut, spends 5-10 minutes building rapport before recording, and pursues 'side alleys'—how he uncovered Debbie Millman's first public account of childhood sexual abuse.
00:59:54Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
Tim discloses a five-year relationship ended about a year ago, that the past year was extremely stressful, and that while his back issues are structural, emotional components (per Sarno) likely also play a role.
01:14:39Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
Tim donates monthly to Charm Industrial (which puts oil back underground, charmindustrial.com) and uses Terraset Climate to offset his travel carbon footprint.
00:00:35Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
His rustic home is intentionally meant to be lived in and even 'abused'—scratches and wine stains from social use—not treated like a museum, with a deliberately autumn-themed backsplash.
00:13:50Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
For skincare, Tim uses only Dr. Bronner's unscented Castile soap for face, head, and body, avoids most sunscreen (preferring zinc oxide and long sleeves), and works 'inside out' with Nordic Naturals omega-3s.
00:20:56Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
To maintain multiple languages, Tim links them via the manga One Piece—using his most recent prior language as the 'safety net' to learn the next, since comics are dialogue-heavy and map pane-by-pane.
00:33:06Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
For dog training, Tim recommends Karen Pryor's 'Don't Shoot the Dog' and clicker training, citing the quote 'No one should be allowed to have a child until they've been forced to train a chicken.'
00:35:55Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
Tim warns of capability atrophy ('if you don't use it, you lose it'), citing how older generations navigate better offline than younger ones reliant on Google Maps, and advocates being a 'selective Luddite.'
00:46:28Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
Tim distinguishes his fear of the 'descent to death' (losing health span and cognition) from fear of death itself, which he manages via Stoicism (Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca) and ego-dissolving experiences.
01:08:31Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
Tim consumes Maui Nui venison sticks (9-11g protein each, three for his 30g) and invested in the company; he calls it the most nutritionally dense meat in the US.
01:05:03Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
Tim strongly endorses Pilates 2-3x/week with a technical instructor for core, pelvis position, and injury prevention, saying he'd tell his 30-years-younger competitive self to do it.
01:16:52Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
Tim is excited to go backcountry and sidecountry ski touring this winter on DPS touring skis he bought last season.
00:17:43Tim Ferriss · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2023
Sahrmann argues low back pain is a symptom, not a diagnosis; the real diagnosis is naming the specific movement that consistently causes the symptoms, then changing it to reduce or eliminate them.
00:15:00Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
She guesses Tim's problem before examining him: overdeveloped abdominals can become too stiff, increasing compression on the spine, especially with any side-to-side asymmetry.
00:16:46Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
In her judgment, at least 70 percent of people with back pain have it because their hip isn't moving optimally, forcing the back to compensate.
00:35:15Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
The body follows the rules of physics and takes the path of least resistance, so it keeps moving at the same problematic spot; treatment means making other places easier to move.
00:41:42Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
Examining Tim on video, she finds he has increased thoracic kyphosis (not just lumbar curve), partly from rectus abdominis pulling down on his thoracic spine.
01:09:43Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
She tells Tim to stop doing bridging exercises because his spine won't follow the glute-driven pelvic tilt, creating a harmful translation motion between pelvis and vertebrae.
01:14:57Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
Tim likely has femoral retroversion, a structural variation meaning his feet shouldn't point straight ahead for deadlifts or golf, and nobody had ever told him.
01:35:25Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
His lifelong kyphosis-lordosis since age 12-13 may be Scheuermann's disease, an idiopathic compression fracture pattern that won't go away; the goal is keeping it from getting worse.
01:42:27Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
From maximum exhalation to maximum inhalation you should be able to change your rib cage circumference about two and a half to three inches; less means abdominal stiffness is adding to spinal compression.
00:17:57Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
Breathing has two modes: 'pump handle' (sternum rising up front) and 'bucket handle' (the sides of the rib cage expanding laterally).
00:38:24Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
Sahrmann coins 'collapso-smasho' for spinal compression in older people without enough muscle and 'squeezo-smasho' for younger people whose overdeveloped abdominal tension adds compression.
00:55:36Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
Shoulders should sit at roughly a six-degree upward clavicle angle, around the C6-C7 level; the serratus anterior acts like a sling to hold the shoulder blades up.
00:57:46Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
Sahrmann is turning 86 next month; both her parents had dementia and she has now exceeded both their ages in life and dementia onset.
01:18:42Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
A friend once told her she had her pants on backwards because the quadruped exercise had changed the curves in her back and buttocks enough to alter how the slacks fit.
01:21:30Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
After years away from bowling during her PhD, she had to re-drill her bowling ball's finger grips because the quadruped position had elongated her chronically flexed finger flexors.
01:23:09Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
Scratching the bottom of your foot makes the tensor fasciae latae fire first; Sahrmann jokingly says she tried to contact the WHO because 'the tensor is run amok' worldwide.
01:31:37Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
The average (not 'normal') femoral head-and-neck rotation is about 15 degrees forward; many men have less, limiting internal rotation.
01:35:25Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
Sahrmann helps feed a friend on a dementia floor twice a day and notes most older people in assisted living are there due to physical disabilities that earlier movement care might have prevented.
01:46:09Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD · The Tim Ferriss Show · Aug 2023
Brene Brown reframes narcissism as the most shame-based of all personality disorders, defining it as the fear of being ordinary rather than genuine self-love.
00:13:36Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Brown describes her marriage's 80/20 rule: she and her husband quantify their available energy out of 20 each and make a plan of kindness whenever the combined total falls below 100.
00:23:54Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Thorp recounts wandering into blackjack after a 1958 Las Vegas trip, then using MIT's IBM 704 computer to mathematically devise a card-counting system to beat the game.
00:31:40Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Thorp reveals that he and Claude Shannon built the first wearable computer in Shannon's basement to predict roulette outcomes, achieving a 44% edge.
00:40:34Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Thorp's hedge fund ran ~20 years with only three down months (each under 1%) and just under 20% annualized returns, and he met Warren Buffett who he predicted would become the richest man in the world.
00:54:10Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Thorp details how in 1991 he analyzed McKinsey's mysterious investment, found half the trades never occurred, and concluded Bernie Madoff was running a fraud 17 years before it collapsed.
01:17:23Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Thorp explains his philosophy of 'enough,' choosing to wind down his fund when it stopped being fun, illustrated by the Joseph Heller / Kurt Vonnegut story.
01:43:08Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Brown distinguishes kid-focused, parent-focused, and family-focused families, describing her household as family-focused with limits like two extracurriculars per child.
00:27:29Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Thorp's blackjack abstract was initially rejected by the American Mathematical Society as 'just another fool with a system' before a colleague vouched for him.
00:35:20Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Author Tom Wolfe, then a young reporter, wrote an AP piece on Thorp's blackjack system that gave it nationwide press.
00:36:23Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Thorp, 89 at recording, says he was in his best shape between ages 55 and 65 and still walks three miles several times a week.
00:43:42Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
When the Chicago Board Options Exchange opened in 1973, Thorp says the only people on the floor were his traders, calling it 'machine guns against bows and arrows.'
00:57:47Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Berkshire Hathaway shares worth about $12 in 1964 were just under $500,000 at the time of recording.
01:00:52Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Thorp outlines his 4% rule for retirement spending and a 2% rule that allows capital to grow in perpetuity, advice he gave to a cryogenic freezing organization's endowment.
01:13:15Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Thorp learned about CO2 and global warming at age 14 in 1946 by studying 19th-century Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius.
01:27:51Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Thorp cites Jim Simons of Renaissance as having probably the best risk-adjusted record in the world, and says he was investor number one in Ken Griffin's Citadel.
01:39:28Brene Brown and Edward O. Thorp · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 2024
Patrick was on painkillers for his knees after three surgical changes, and backward sledding let him ditch the painkillers, sparking the realization that anyone, even his mom, could do it.
00:02:35Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
After about a year and a half of no running, his back developed major problems, and only doing the loaded split-squat stretch fixed it; he's had no back problem for 12 years since.
00:11:55Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Patrick reframed his rehab as his actual exercise routine rather than just rehab, and it's stayed in his weekly regimen for over a decade while letting him play basketball pain-free.
00:21:31Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
He coaches the inner-thigh/split-squat work as a dumbbell-only exercise and deliberately does not progress it to a barbell on the back, using the floor as a natural limiting point.
00:24:39Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Patrick reveals his origin story: a failed high school athlete with no college recruitment who rehabbed with knee-over-toe exercises, earned a junior college scholarship, became a two-year starting point guard, then turned down Division I full rides to open his gym.
00:37:45Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Every four-year school told him no knees over toes, meaning he would have been banned from the very exercises that earned him the scholarship.
00:38:48Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Patrick argues knee-over-toes is no longer fringe; tons of studies and tools like consensus.app now support decline step-downs and training the knee-over-toe position to prevent injury.
00:39:49Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
The idea of dragging a sled before workouts traces to Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell, who got it from Finnish powerlifters who dragged trees in the forestry industry.
00:00:32Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Charles Poliquin popularized backward sledding to rehab Olympians with knee injuries.
00:01:03Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Across thousands of group classes (over 100,000 sessions counted), Patrick had zero injuries from sledding.
00:03:38Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Louie Simmons came to this work after breaking his back, and also invented the reverse hyper.
00:04:41Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Premium resisted sled units can cost $5,000 to $10,000, while Patrick sells his version for $600.
00:04:41Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Statistics cited claim 95% of people will never sprint again after age 30.
00:06:45Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Bodybuilding legend Tom Platz, around 70 years old, can still drop into a deep squat and teach squats, with jaw muscles nearly as developed as his quads.
00:15:35Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Jersey Gregoric, a Polish immigrant to the US around 70 with multiple Olympic weightlifting world records in the masters division, inspired Patrick's micro-progressions for ankle mobility.
00:18:40Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Patrick partners with Spud Inc. in South Carolina for durable American-made fabric equipment so students can serve as the 'sleds' for each other.
00:35:12Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
Tim Ferriss notes he hired a researcher for the 4-Hour Body back in 2010 to investigate fitness claims, before tools like consensus.app existed.
00:38:48Ben Patrick · The Tim Ferriss Show · Nov 2025
In Kjaer's study, patients who loaded an injury at day two after injury returned to sport 25% faster than those who waited nine days to load.
00:47:43Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
Eccentric loading for tendons was a 'false positive' — it worked because of slow velocity, not the eccentric motion itself; heavy strength training has the identical effect, and zero velocity (isometric) gives the biggest bang for the buck.
00:22:50Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
A boot or RICE is a 'mechanical stress shielder' that removes the tension tendons need to heal, so the standard orthopedic treatment can actually make the injury worse and cause scarring.
00:00:00Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
BPC-157 has no direct effect on tendon or ligament cells — engineered human ligaments treated with it showed no change in mechanics, collagen, or strength.
01:06:58Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
Women are four to eight times more likely to rupture their ACL because estrogen periodically inhibits a collagen cross-linking enzyme, lowering tendon stiffness during parts of the menstrual cycle.
01:23:19Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
Physical therapist Rob Whitley told a room of orthopedic surgeons that PRP, stem cells and prolotherapy show no benefit in randomized controlled trials — only getting load through the tissue works.
01:13:51Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
Mice on a ketogenic diet lived 13% longer than controls, an effect comparable to rapamycin, and old keto-fed animals had strength and brain function at the level of young animals.
01:33:43Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
Connective-tissue cells need only about 10 minutes of loading (e.g. 10s on, 50s off) to get the full adaptation signal, then a six-to-eight-hour refractory period before responding again — matching bone's response to as few as 40 stimuli.
00:08:19Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
Tendon stress relaxation drops exponentially; by 30 seconds you reach about 85% of the bottom, and waiting two minutes only adds about 15% more — hence 30-second holds for injured tendons.
00:26:29Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
Three days in a 3D-printed cast cost a mouse tendon 15–20% of its collagen and made it roughly 30% mechanically weaker — a larger loss than the muscle itself.
01:08:34Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
Fluoroquinolone antibiotics like ciprofloxacin raise Achilles rupture rate about 3.5-fold, while AT-1 (angiotensin) receptor blocking 'sartan' blood-pressure drugs taken by 15+ million Americans raise it 7.6-fold.
01:19:39Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
On keto, no carbohydrate forces reliance on mitochondria, and lowered mTOR triggers 'mitophagy' that culls weak mitochondria — but keto severely harms bone mass, which is why epileptic kids must eventually cycle off it.
01:36:51Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
Using a resorbable suture in Achilles repair allowed native tissue to recover and produced better collagen-synthesis markers than non-resorbable, with no difference in tendon length — contradicting surgeons' fears.
00:54:32Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
Testosterone activates lysyl oxidase and decreases collagen, creating stiff but brittle tendons — explaining why steroid-using baseball players' performance would suddenly 'drop off a cliff' from tendon ruptures.
01:26:25Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
Rupturing your ACL makes you 50% more likely to have a heart attack, driven by the habitual decrease in activity that follows the injury.
01:13:19Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
A 2017 study found ~15g gelatin plus ~200–250mg vitamin C taken an hour before brief exercise doubled blood markers of new collagen formation versus control.
01:01:17Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
The 'refractory period' for tendons is why Emil Abrahamsson's brother, with many injuries, did isometric hangs twice a day (six-plus hours apart) and got his hands healthy.
00:08:19Dr. Keith Baar · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2025
Nsima's competition lifts: a 622 lb squat, 396 lb bench, and 755 lb deadlift for a 1758 total; in the gym he later hit a 645 squat and 775 deadlift, and notably pulled the 755 without a belt to prove his structure could handle the load unassisted.
00:01:32Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
The video that hooked Tim referenced Serge Gracovetsky's book 'The Spinal Engine,' showing a man with no arms or legs moving through space via spinal rotation alone, illustrating that the spine, not the limbs, drives locomotion.
00:04:13Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
The core breathing principle: most back issues trace to unconscious breath-holding; Nsima teaches inhaling on the way down and exhaling on the concentric (coming out of the hole) at lighter loads so the body feels safe and sheds excess global tension.
00:38:35Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
His low-back prescription for Tim: prioritize unilateral work (ATG split squats, lunges) over axial-loaded back squats, use sandbags and box squats above parallel at 40-60% of one-rep max, maintaining tension while breathing.
00:43:45Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
Regression got Nsima out of chronic knee pain: after a partial meniscectomy and Osgood-Schlatter he thought he'd never sprint again, but starting with ATG split-squat pulses on a box, he progressed over ~4 months to pain-free deep knee flexion, running, and sprinting.
01:33:25Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
His top non-negotiable lift is the sled, because grandma and an NFL linebacker can both do it with no spinal compression risk; he progresses it from neutral-spine pushing/pulling all the way to producing force in deep spinal flexion, extension, and lateral flexion.
02:04:29Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
Nsima beat NFL star Tyreek Hill's Nordic curl count, working from regressions (higher bench, partial range) over months to do roughly 15-18 reps versus Tyreek's 10.
02:49:15Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
He cites a quote (attributed to a Russian sport scientist via Kelly Starrett): 'Once you stop jumping, you start dying,' and recommends a rebounder as a regression for people who've lost the ability to jump and land safely.
02:59:09Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
Nsima's full Foundations rope flow course is free, with 50+ videos at skool.com/thestrongerhuman.
00:28:42Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
A Magma XL rope costs about $80, the RMT rope ~$40-45, but a cut Home Depot or boating-store rope works fine for getting started.
00:30:44Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
The ATG split squat (popularized by Ben Patrick) involves deep front-knee flexion with the back leg in hip extension to build strength through long ranges; ATG stands for Athletic Truth Group.
00:43:45Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
Colton Engelbrecht holds the highest powerlifting total ever (~470 kg deadlift, 260 kg bench, ~2650 lb total) at age 22 after only three years of training.
01:07:31Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
Ed Coan, considered the greatest powerlifter of all time, has an enormous ape index; Nsima notes Coan's hands were the same size as a roughly 6-10 NBA player despite being about 5-foot-5.
01:15:19Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
Tim was introduced to 'micro-dosing movement' by Cory Slesinger, a performance director who had NBA athletes sprinkle small movement bouts through the day instead of needing extensive warm-ups.
01:44:16Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
Tim describes pike pulses, a calisthenics core exercise done seated on the floor with straight legs, as a brutal, no-space-needed movement.
01:55:42Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
Tim's go-to soft tissue tool for back spasms is an acupressure mat (Naoya / 'bed of nails' style); he travels with just the neck attachment for low-back relief and says it resolves ~50% of his sleep-disrupting back issues.
02:37:50Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
The 'Back Buddy' (an S-shaped/cane-style back hook) was recommended to Tim by Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook and Asana.
02:42:29Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
Tim's DEXA scan showed below-average bone density in specific body segments despite a fine average, prompting his focus on compression, impact, jumping, and rotation to stimulate bone adaptation.
02:51:51Nsima Inyang · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 2025
McGraw reveals 'Live Like You Were Dying' was written about his dying father Tug, was sent to him during the illness, but he never played it for his dad because it felt inappropriate to play a song about dying to a man who was dying.
00:04:09Tim McGraw · The Tim Ferriss Show · Feb 2026

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