Summary
In this premium AMA preview, Andrew Huberman addresses how to fit exercise into a busy schedule. He discusses practical approaches emphasizing that consistency matters more than perfect programming, offering a flexible framework for combining three resistance training and three cardiovascular sessions per week. He covers sliding workout schedules, periodization, and how to prioritize different types of exercise based on individual goals. The full episode also covers sleep tools and learning strategies, available to premium subscribers.
Key Points
- Consistency in exercise matters more than having a perfect program -- fitting training into your schedule is better than skipping it because of rigid planning
- A foundational fitness protocol includes 3 resistance training days and 3 cardiovascular days per week, with flexibility to slide workouts around your schedule
- Periodization and workout structure can be adapted to busy schedules without sacrificing results
- The preview covers fitness scheduling only; sleep optimization and learning strategies are in the full premium episode
Key Moments
Foundational fitness protocol: 3 resistance + 3 cardio sessions per week with built-in flexibility
A practical weekly schedule -- legs, torso, small parts, plus zone 2, moderate run, and VO2 max cardio. Slide workouts forward or back a day when life gets in the way; aim for 85-95% adherence.
"Well, I'm the first person to say, you know, skip torso training day. And then maybe on small body parts day, which for me falls on Saturday, instead of just doing biceps, triceps with some isolation exercises, make sure you do a few chins, pull-ups, dips, and things like that to make sure that you hit those torso muscles as well. Skipping a workout every once in a while is not going to crater your entire fitness program. It's simply not. That said, for sake of physical health and for sake of just feeling good about your commitment and follow through to your fitness regimen, you should try on average to make somewhere between 85 and 95% of your workouts. And if you schedule things well, and in particular, if you leave your phone out of the gym, if you're able to do that, I know sometimes we need the phone to communicate with people or the potential to communicate with people if people need to get ahold of us. But if you can leave your phone outside of the gym, you'll be amazed at how quickly you move through these workouts. Likewise, with your cardiovascular training sessions. Now, one important feature of flexibility that I haven't talked about yet is flexibility within a day. So for me, just personally, again, this is my personal preference. This is by no means dogma. I prefer to get my workouts done first thing in the morning. So I like to get up, hydrate, get some electrolytes in my system, get some caffeine in my system if I'm going to work out. That's right, I said it. I do believe if you experience a crash in energy in the afternoon, delaying your caffeine by about 90 minutes or so after waking can be very beneficial. I know there's some controversy around that, but almost everybody that tries it finds that that's the case. Again, no obligation to do that. It's just a suggestion to, you know, perhaps experiment with if you have an afternoon crash. But for me, and I think for most people, if you're going to work out first thing in the morning and you like caffeine before a workout, drink caffeine first thing in the morning. That's certainly what I do if I'm going to work out that day. I like to have my workouts done before 9 a.m. and ideally before 8.30 a.m. so that I can move into my work day. However, there are days where that simply doesn't happen. And then the question is, is it okay to move a workout from its typical time, like for me, 7.30 a.m. or so to the afternoon? And the answer is yes. There's simply no reason why that's not okay. It's not going to cause a significant diminishment in performance. If anything, the data point to the fact that for sake of physical performance and output, workouts in the afternoon are probably more beneficial. I don't know about that result. I mean, that's certainly what the data say. I know for me, I'm most alert and have the most amount of energy first thing in the morning. And so that's when my workouts tend to be best. But if I can't make a workout in the morning, I'll sometimes do it in the afternoon around 2 or 3 PM, making sure, however, that I don't consume so much caffeine before that workout, that it's going to disrupt my sleep. Now there's another feature of training, which is like sunlight, like meals, like socialization, physical exercise provides an entrainment mechanism. That is a predictive mechanism for your so-called autonomic nervous system that makes it such that at a given hour of the day that you normally train, so for me around 7.30 AM or so, you'll notice that there's going to be a peak in physical and mental energy. That's right. If you work out at a given time pretty consistently, your autonomic nervous system will start to anticipate that timing and you'll start to feel an increase in energy around that time. That is not an imagined thing. It's a real thing. It's a short-term entrainment as we call it. This is something that I'll probably visit in a future full-length episode of the Huberman Lab podcast."
