Fitness Toolkit: Protocol & Tools to Optimize Physical Health

Huberman's foundational fitness toolkit: synthesizing Galpin, Attia, and Schoenfeld

A comprehensive fitness protocol synthesizing science-based tools from top experts for cardio, strength, endurance, and lifespan.

"Now, fitness, of course, is vitally important for cardiovascular health, for strength, for endurance, for lifespan, for healthspan. I can't think of anyone out there that wouldn't want to have healthy hormonal function, healthy cardiovascular function, to live a long time and to feel vital, that is to have a long health span as well as a long lifespan."

Sunday: start the week with zone 2 cardio (30 min jog or hike) to set metabolic tone

Huberman begins each week with a long zone 2 endurance session to ensure baseline cardiovascular fitness no matter what follows.

"There are multiple benefits to doing these kinds of endurance type workouts and zone two cardio, but by putting it at the start of my week, again, my week starts on Sunday, I'm sure that regardless of how the rest of the week goes, that I got my endurance training in. And of course, I'm going to want to, and I will do endurance training other days during the week, but if something comes up or I happen to get sick or I'm really behind in terms of work and I can't get other workouts in, this Sunday long jog or hike really provides that fundamental, I can honestly say foundation for cardiovascular fitness and endurance that I can hang my hat on and say, okay, I've got that one in the bag and I can then look to other days of the week to focus on other aspects of fitness. Now, a really important point to make about this Sunday endurance workout is that allows you to check off a box and that box is 75 or so minutes of zone two cardio because as you may have heard either in this podcast or from others out there like Dr. Peter Atiyah, getting 180 to 200 minutes of zone two cardio per week has enormous positive effects on longevity and enormous positive effects on general health."

The weekly split: legs, push, pull, cardio variations across 6 training days

The program covers strength, hypertrophy, muscular endurance, anaerobic capacity, aerobic capacity, and long-duration endurance.

"Each and every one of these requires different principles, different concepts in order to improve your muscular strength, hypertrophy, or both."

Monday = legs: largest muscle groups first to boost metabolism and hormones all week

Training legs on Monday activates the largest muscle groups, elevating metabolism and hormonal processes that carry through the entire week.

"I should say that leg workouts, like all resistance training workouts for me, consist of about, again, I'm not neurotically attached to this, but about 10 minutes of warming up and then about 50, 5-0 to 60 minutes of real work. Now, of course, some of that is going to be rest between sets, but by real work, I mean really hard work, not necessarily to failure. We'll talk about failure in a little bit, but hard work where I'm struggling to complete the final repetitions, if not going to failure to continue to move the weight repetitions. And again, the entire work portion of that workout is about 50 to 60 minutes. Why? Well, past 60 minutes, you start getting increases in cortisol that really impede recovery. And I personally am somebody that does not recover very well from high intensity exercise. I realized that within the literature, it is believed, and I think generally accepted, that when you stimulate muscle hypertrophy or strength increases, it impacts the nervous system. It also causes things like protein synthesis, et cetera. There are a number of different forms of adaptation that occur to give you muscle strength and size changes."

Friday HIIT doubles as leg supplement: 20-30 sec sprints with 10 sec rest on assault bike

A Friday HIIT session on the assault bike serves dual purpose: high-intensity endurance and a moderate supplementary leg workout.

"So what I'm not referring to is the kind of classic, super high intensity training once per week, and then not actually training that muscle group again. For me, it's really training each muscle group twice per week, once directly, and then once indirectly, either during another weight training workout or during a cardiovascular, I should say endurance training workout. So again, legs on Monday, the workout is 50 to 60 minutes after a brief warmup. I generally pick two exercises per muscle group. So again, I'm doing calves, I'm doing quadriceps and I'm doing hamstrings. You should pick the exercises that work for you. So that's why I'm actually not going to share which exercises I use. I'll give you a couple of suggestions about the ones I do use, but really exercise selection, as Dr. Andy Galpin pointed out, is a very important variable."

Monthly periodization: alternate between 4-8 rep months and 8-15 rep months

Cluster low-rep strength work for one month, then moderate-rep hypertrophy work the next. During moderate-rep months, endurance work improves too.

"I'm very impressed by them. I'm really just trying to get overall cardiovascular fitness, overall strength, overall hypertrophy where I need it, maintain muscle size, et cetera, in muscle groups where I'm just trying to maintain. That's really my goal. So I'm not trying to optimize any of these workouts for any one performance feature, but in a little bit, we'll talk about how you can change various aspects, that is variables of this protocols, in order to say, for instance, really emphasize hypertrophy or really emphasize endurance. Okay, so with what I would call a standard endurance workout done on Sunday, and I say standard because most people, when they hear endurance, they think of the ability to endure, to continue in a repeated movement or exercise over some period of time. With that workout done on Sunday, and then with the leg workout done on Monday, you can feel really good about how you're heading into the week."

One sauna day per week: 16x growth hormone boost from repeated sessions on same day

Finnish research shows massive growth hormone increases from repeated sauna on one day per week. Cold showers are OK after strength workouts.

"But the simple point is by doing your heat and cold contrast, or, hey, listen, if you're somebody who doesn't have access to sauna, or you don't like hot baths and you just do some deliberate cold exposure on Tuesday, you are doing that separate from your strength and hypertrophy and endurance workouts such that it will not impede the benefits of those workouts. Okay, so long endurance on Sunday, leg resistance training on Monday, and on Tuesday, heat cold contrast. That brings us to Wednesday. And on Wednesday, we get back to a resistance training workout. And the resistance training workout that I emphasize on Wednesday is one in which you train your torso."

Thursday: 35 min moderate-to-high intensity cardio (running, rowing, or cycling)

The Thursday session targets the endurance range where heart rate stays elevated for sustained periods, building a different adaptation than Sunday's.

"Unlike the endurance training on Sunday, the cardiovascular session on Thursday is about 35 minutes of running, rowing, or cycling."

Thursday cardio: sustained 75-80% max heart rate for 35 minutes

This mid-week cardiovascular session targets sustained effort at 75-80% max heart rate, building endurance distinct from zone 2.

"The goal of this workout is to get into that range of endurance where your heart rate is elevated quite a bit for a sustained period."

Friday HIIT protocol: 20-30 sec all-out sprints, 10 sec rest, 8-12 rounds on assault bike

The assault bike HIIT session drives heart rate near maximum by round 5-6.

"Okay, so Saturday is this arm workout with that, I'll just give an example of a potential workout where you might do a few more exercises, maybe not just two, but maybe three, to make sure you get the torso indirect stimulation. So what would this look like? Well, this might be your sort of classic dumbbell curls for the bicep and maybe incline curl for the bicep because it has more of a stretch, so on an incline bench. And then you might finish with two sets of chin-ups. So palms facing you, chin-ups are three sets of chin-ups, depending on whether or not you're in a heavier load month or a more moderate weight month. Again, activating the biceps muscles, because it's arms day, but also activating strength and hypertrophy in the lats, or at least maintaining it so that, because you're not training those torso muscles again until Wednesday, you're not allowing the hypertrophy in the lats, or at least maintaining it, so that because you're not training those torso muscles again until Wednesday, you're not allowing the hypertrophy and strength gains that you generated on Wednesday to atrophy, to disappear. Then thinking about triceps, it might be some sort of triceps isolation or peak contraction movement. So that could be tricep kickback or some overhead extension would be more of a stretch type movement than a kickback, but then also doing regular old dips. You might even start with dips, which again are going to activate those torso muscles and the triceps. And then calf work in the same way that you did on Monday. And neck work, again, I am a believer in training neck multiple times per week. And if you are able to finish all of that in 45 or 50 minutes, great. Most people will find when you're doing a lot of small muscle groups, it actually takes longer because you have to go around to more exercises. But again, just adhere to the same principles we talked about before. About 50, five, zero to 60 minutes of real work after a warmup with an asterisk next to that, that if someone's on the equipment or you can't find the dumbbells you need, et cetera, then maybe 75 minutes max, but really trying to not extend that workout too long, making sure that you activate the arms directly, but also activating the torso muscles indirectly. And again, I won't repeat it this time again, but following the same weight and repetition and rest interval scheme that we talked about earlier, a bit heavier, lower reps, more sets, and longer rest for about a month, and then alternating to more repetitions, yet fewer sets, shorter rest intervals, and do that for about a month. This carries through for all the resistance training workouts, regardless of the day of the week. So we've completed the total arc across the week and we can summarize it as saying, Sunday is let's just say long endurance. Monday is leg resistance training. Tuesday, heat cold contrast. Wednesday, torso training plus neck. Thursday, I would call it moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise. So that 35 it moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise. So that 35 minute moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise. Friday, high intensity interval training of sprinting or some variation thereof. And Saturday, arms, calves, neck, and torso indirect work."

Saturday: arms, calves, and neck with torso supplementary work

Saturday hits smaller muscle groups directly while including dip and chin movements that indirectly stimulate chest, shoulders, and back.

"Saturday is this arm workout. Included in that, I suggest doing some sort of dip movement, which is synonymous with an upper body squat."

Mind-muscle connection vs. moving weight: when to use each for strength vs. hypertrophy

Focusing on the muscle biases a set toward hypertrophy, while focusing on moving the weight biases toward strength. Both approaches have a place.

"Moving the weight is going to be more geared towards strength improvements, but focusing on the muscle, the mind-muscle link, is going to shift that same set more toward hypertrophy."

When sick: train at 80% if mild, skip entirely if real cold or flu

Mild fatigue or soreness: train at reduced intensity and shorter duration. Real illness: stop completely and don't return until fully recovered.

"And if it was endurance work, I might throttle back by 10 or 20%. And I will shorten the total duration of the workout. And I often find that because of the known, yes, peer reviewed known immune system enhancing effects of exercise, sometimes that alone will allow me to avoid getting sick. But of course, I'm also careful to get home, take a hot shower, not stress myself out if I can, avoid getting myself stressed out and focus on sleep and SDR, other forms of recovery, good nutrition, et cetera. If, however, I have a real sniffle, a cold, I'm not feeling well, or I think I might be coming down with a flu, I absolutely do not train and I don't get back into training of any kind until I'm completely recovered. So what I'm basically saying is that, no, I don't believe you should train if you're sick. And perhaps equally importantly, when you come back from a layoff of any kind, whether or not because of illness or for whatever reason, I do believe that because your body is a bit untrained, it's not ideal to jump right back into maximal training and to take one, maybe two weeks of ramping up to the full duration and intensity of workouts that then I would continue on going for however many cycles I can complete before I hit another sickness or I hit another gap in my schedule due to family obligations or other obligations, et cetera. So we've covered a lot of tools and protocols and variables related to fitness, but we have by no means covered all the available tools and protocols and variables."