How Many Times Per Week Should I Lift Weights?

Most people fall into one of two camps: they either don’t like training that much and go to the gym two or three days a week just to do the minimum, or they LOVE to lift and they go four, five, six, or maybe even seven straight days. The truth is, both approaches can yield significant results for both types of people, and to understand why, we have to look at the concept of training volume—the number of hard, growth-producing sets you do for a muscle group in a training week.

By hard sets we mean your “work” sets, not warmups. These are the sets that really count—the ones you take to failure, or close to it (i.e., the point at which you can’t do another rep with good form).

The question to ask yourself, then, isn’t “How often should I lift?” but “How much work do I want to do in each workout?” and “How much can I recover from?”

The majority of research on training teaches us a few things.

1. A muscle needs at least 48 hours rest before it can be worked again. So, if you train chest on Monday afternoon, you probably shouldn’t do any more sets for the pecs before Wednesday afternoon at the earliest, if building muscle is your main goal. The more sets you do, the more time you’ll need to recover.

2. The MAXIMUM amount of volume that a muscle group can handle in a single workout seems to be about 10 sets, but many people will grow from a lot fewer than that. Furthermore, 10 sets per WEEK, or slightly more, appears to be enough volume to stimulate gains (see the paper from the IUSCA linked above).

3. The frequency of your training is really just a way to manage the total amount of volume you do. So if you want to be in the gym as little as possible, do more work in each session, and if you like going more often, do less—or break up the muscles you train so that each major area gets its own session and you get several days’ break before training the same muscles again.

Now let’s look at what this means in real life.

Basically, if building muscle is your goal, you should aim for AROUND 10 sets for each muscle group per WEEK (any seven-day period). If you’re new to lifting or feel like you’re a little overtrained, start with closer to five sets and work your way up only as needed (it’s always best to aim for the minimum effective dose). Now the way you divide those five to 10 sets up is entirely up to you. You could do all 5–10 sets in one workout, 5 sets in two different workouts, 3 sets across three different workouts, or any number of other variables.

Most coaches will tell you that people who want to be as efficient as possible and minimize their time in the gym should train their whole body in one session two or three times per week. For example, Monday and Friday, or Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. With this kind of program, you can go in and do one or two exercises for each major muscle group, and maybe 2-3 sets for each. This will certainly give the regular Joe who just wants the minimum effective dose enough work to see results, and it’s still a good guideline for more serious, advanced lifters who like to do full-body workouts as well. Note that muscles never work in total isolation, and there’s typically a lot of carryover between exercises. For example, any pressing movement will work your triceps along with your chest and shoulders, so you probably don’t need a lot of direct triceps work if you’re already doing several sets of pressing. The glutes and hamstrings tend to work as a unit on leg exercises as well.

Sample 3-Day Full-Body Split

Monday

Back squat – 3 sets x 5 reps

Dumbbell bench press – 2 sets x 6–8 reps

One-arm dumbbell row – 2 sets x 8–10 reps

Biceps curl – 3 sets x 8–10

Wednesday

Military press – 3 sets x 5 reps

Weighted chinup – 2 sets x 6–10 reps

Leg curl – 3 sets x 6–8 reps

Triceps pushdown – 3 sets x 8–10

Friday

Cable row – 2 sets x 6 reps

Reverse lunge – 2 sets x 6–8

Romanian deadlift – 2 sets x 8–10 reps

Pushup – 2 sets x AMRAP

In the above example, the quads get worked Monday and Friday (squats, reverse lunges) for five total sets per week. The glutes get about seven sets between Monday and Friday (squat, reverse lunge, RDL), while the hamstrings get five (leg curl, RDL). The pushing muscles (pecs, shoulders, and triceps) get hit with the two pressing exercises and the pushups (about seven sets), and the back and other miscellaneous pulling muscles get worked with the rows and chinups for seven total sets. 

For those who love to train and really want to develop each muscle to its potential, you can do an upper-lower split or even a body-part split, where you train each muscle twice in a four to seven-day period. For example, you could do legs on Monday, a push-pull workout for the chest, shoulders, back, and arms Tuesday, take Wednesday off, then another leg day on Thursday and another upper day Friday. Note that while you spend more time working one area of the body at a time, the actual volume per muscle group is similar to the example shown above. Your total number of sets in a week is still in the five to 10 range.

Sample Upper-Lower Split

Monday (Lower Body)

Front squat – 2 x 6–8

Walking lunge – 2 x 8–10

Glute bridge – 3 x 5–8

Stiff-legged deadlift – 3 x 8–10

Tuesday (Upper Body)

Bench press – 3 x 5–7

Weighted pullup – 3 x 5–8

Dumbbell shoulder press – 2 x 6–8

Lateral raise – 2 x 8–10

Rear-delt flye – 2 x 8–10

Lying triceps extension – 3 x 8–10

Wednesday (Off)

Thursday (Lower Body)

Deadlift – 3 x 5

Leg press – 2 x 8–10

Back extension – 2 x 10–12

Leg curl – 2 x 8–10

Friday (Upper Body)

Military press – 3 x 5–8

One-arm dumbbell row – 2 x 6–10

Cable Flye – 2 x 6–8

Incline dumbbell curl – 3 x 6–10

Saturday (Off)

Sunday (Repeat Cycle)

Another example: You could train legs Monday, chest and shoulders Tuesday, take Wednesday off, train back and rear delts on Thursday, train calves and arms Friday, take Saturday off, and start the cycle with legs again Sunday.

Sample Body-Part Split

Monday (Legs)

Seated leg curl – 3 x 8–10

Bulgarian split squat – 1 x 6–10

Machine squat – 2 x 6–10

Hip thrust – 2 x 6–8

Tuesday (Chest and Shoulders)

Incline dumbbell bench press – 2 x 6–8

Low-to-high cable flye – 2 x 8–10

Cable lateral raise – 2 x 8–10

Machine shoulder press – 2 x 6–8

Wednesday (Off)

Thursday (Back and Rear Delts)

Weighted chinup – 2 x 5–8

Lat pulldown – 2 x 6–10

Cable row – 2 x 6–8

Dumbbell shrug – 2 x 6–8

Cable rear delt flye – 2 x 8–10

Friday (Calves and Arms)

Calf raise on leg press – 2 x 6–10

Dumbbell curl – 2 x 6–8

Triceps pushdown – 2 x 6–8

Cable curl – 2 x 8–10

Dip – 2 x 8–10

Hammer curl – 1 x 8–10

Saturday (Off)

Sunday (Repeat Cycle)

In these cases, you’d do roughly 3–6 sets per body part in EACH WORKOUT, totaling between 6 and 12 sets in a 7-day period.

If I Work Out More, Will I Build More Muscle?

The majority of the research does NOT SHOW ANY ADVANTAGE to higher training frequencies for muscle OR strength when volume is equated [2, 3]. That means that if you do five sets for chest, two days per week, you should make the SAME GAINS as you would doing two sets five times per week, or 10 sets in one day per week. The total amount of work is 10 sets either way, so the stimulus is roughly the same. Muscle research expert Brad Schoenfeld, PhD, author of Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy, sums it up in his book with the following: “These findings indicate that, as a standalone variable, frequency does not have much impact on muscle development; it seems that its primary utility is to act as a vehicle to manage weekly volume.”

With that said, most coaches agree that training intensity is a greater factor in gaining muscle than training volume. It’s a matter of efficiency. Most people are probably better served doing fewer sets and taking them closer to failure and training slightly more often (as opposed to marathon workouts for one muscle at a time, such as a chest day, back day, shoulder day, etc.). The more sets you do, the more fatigue you build, and that can make it difficult to recover from workouts and get stronger. So you’re probably better off doing four hard sets of chest in one session than 10 in one shot (four of which may be hard, followed by six sets that are lower quality due to your being tired). Most trainees seem to find that training muscles twice in seven days is the sweet spot, splitting their total volume down the middle and doing half in each session.

So you can tell your buddies who bench press EVERY day that they’re not going to get a bigger chest than if they benched just once or twice a week.

Is There A Way To Know If My Training Is Working?

If this all seems confusing, just remember this: progressive overload is the most important factor in the process of gaining muscle. If you can add reps and/or weight to most of your exercises each time you repeat a workout, i.e. you’re GETTING STRONGER, you’re getting enough volume and frequency to see gains.

See how to pair a proper nutrition program with your training with our guide to How To Set Up Your Diet for Fat Loss or Muscle Gain.

The post How Often Should You Lift To Build Muscle? appeared first on Onnit Academy.

OK… If you woke up and looked in the mirror this morning to see a painful reminder of all your holiday season overindulgences firmly attached to your waistline, the last thing you might be feeling right now is “happy.”

But what if I told you that in 12 weeks you could not only get back to fighting form—ripped even, beyond where you’ve ever taken your body before—and you wouldn’t have to count a single calorie or give up your favorite foods to get there?

No, I’m not promising a quick, easy fix. I’m not telling you that you can keep eating and drinking the way you did over the holidays (or the past few years) and expect a different result. But I do have a foolproof plan to knock the weight you’ve added to your belly/ass/thighs off of you and get you a beach-ready body by the start of spring. And it doesn’t require you locking yourself in at night and subsisting on lettuce and protein powder. In fact, you’ll be amazed at how taking the most basic of steps will yield significant results in just the first four weeks alone.

Begin following the first month-long phase of this 12-week program as outlined below, and then see the next two parts, linked at the bottom. Combine these nutrition guidelines with any Onnit 6 or Onnit in 30 program, you’ll have both the fuel and the fire to transform your physique and performance.

Ready? Then without further ado, Onnit and I proudly present the 12-Week Fat Loss Nutrition Plan.

The First 3 Rules of Eating For Rippedness!

#1 Only Eat When It’s Time To Eat

Losing weight is primarily about controlling calories. The easiest way to start doing that—without having to count your calories or weigh your food—is to simply stick to planned, structured meals. I.e., breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

“But wait, I thought small, frequent meals were best for getting ripped. That’s what all the bodybuilding magazines say.”

Yes, they do, and that’s an approach that can work. But I’d rather you keep it simple. Looking at it logically, the more times you sit down to eat, the more calories you’re likely to take in. Plus, the frequent-eating approach means taking the time to plan and cook your meals well in advance, which I know many of you just won’t have the time to do. And let’s face it, it’s also a hassle. Think of spending your Sunday grilling chicken breasts instead of watching football. It could also mean having to grab food on the go every couple hours when you’re working or running errands. It’s not practical for most people who have busy lives (or, ahem, lives they’d like to enjoy).

“What about fasting?”

If eating often leads to taking in more calories, then it stands to reason that skipping a meal entirely, or at least going a long time without one, would mean you’d eat less food. So, if you think that will be the case for you, then go ahead and fast. Most people who like the intermittent fasting style of dieting prefer to skip breakfast, which usually gives them about 16 hours without food. This can work very well, provided that you’re not the type who goes mad with hunger and overeats at their next meal, which research has shown is a possibility. Ultimately, the frequency with which you eat comes down to a matter of preference, but I recommend sticking to three normal meals a day for simplicity’s sake. It’s the easiest schedule for most people to stay on.

Cut out all snacking. No more pretzels from the vending machine, lattes on the way to work, or late-night brews. This may sound brutal at first, like you’ll starve, but in Rules #2 and #3 I’ll show you how to fill up on healthy food so you don’t have these cravings anymore.

And, like most rules, there are some exceptions. If you normally work out after dinner, you can (and should) have a snack afterward so you don’t go to bed on an empty stomach (more on what this should be later). Or, if you typically eat lunch at noon, work out mid day, and won’t be eating dinner until later that evening, a post-workout snack should be added as well. Heck, even if you don’t plan to work out mid-afternoon, if you eat an early lunch and can’t have dinner until 8 or 9 p.m., you should have a snack sometime in between to tide you over.

What exactly is a snack?

● Veggies and hummus? Great.
● Berries and nuts? Yep.
● Apple and peanut butter? Perfecto.

Almost any combination of protein, fiber, and whole-food fat is a winning trio. Chips, dip, soft drinks or sugar-bomb lattes? No.

Apart from these snacks, don’t eat anything unless you’re sitting down for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. When you’re done with your meal, the kitchen is closed.

One of the biggest obstacles to weight loss is eating out of sheer boredom, not physiological hunger. Maintaining the “kitchen closed” policy will help break that cycle.

#2 Control Portions With Your Hands

All of your meals should be structured the same way. They should contain at least one handful of protein, a minimum of two handfuls of vegetables (or one piece of whole fruit and one handful of veggies), and one handful of starchy carbohydrates.

Protein, if you weren’t sure, is any type of meat or fish. A handful-size chicken breast or a hamburger patty is one serving of protein. The same goes for whole cuts of beef, turkey, pork and salmon or tuna fillets. Similar amounts of eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt (no sugar added), and protein powder supplements are also good sources.

Fatty, processed foods like hot dogs and bacon are permissible in this first four-week block, but use common sense and avoid them most of the time. If you’re at a football game and can’t get a lean chicken breast, a ballpark frank is better than starving (unless you prefer to fast), but don’t convince yourself that you don’t have better options most of the time. Because protein is filling and it supports muscle growth, I’m not putting a firm limit on it. Have at least a handful in every meal, but if two or three handfuls is what it takes to keep you full and feel like you’re recovering from workouts, then go ahead. Again, the leaner and plainer the protein source the better. Think meat and fish, not In-N-Out Burger, even if you do toss the bun.

Starches include potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, beans, and whole grains like rice, oats, and quinoa. A slice of whole-grain bread like Ezekiel is great too.

Beyond just making your meals easier to control and stick with, there is some solid nutritional science behind my recommendations. A palmful of protein, regardless of the source, will usually give you 25–35 grams of the stuff (depending on the size of your hand).

Vegetables and fruits are foods you can eat liberally. Fruits don’t rank quite as high as veggies since some are higher in sugar and calories, but no one ever gained weight because they couldn’t stop eating fruit. As long as you’re eating whole fruit—say, a peach as opposed to canned peaches that have marinated in a pool of syrup—you can count on its fiber slowing down the digestion of the sugar, keeping your energy steady and your belly full.

In fact, if in the first few weeks you find yourself absolutely unable to adhere to the “eat only at breakfast, lunch, and dinner” rule, there’s no harm in breaking it with veggies and fruit and more protein as well. I’d still prefer you eat three meals a day and that’s it, but if you’re going to fall off the wagon, I’d rather you crashed into a bed of celery, carrot sticks, and a hamburger patty than a pile of potato chips or bowl of ice cream. Overeating with natural, healthy food always trumps gorging on more calorie-dense junk. Make sense?

Veggies in particular are naturally low in calories and high in fiber—not to mention numerous essential vitamins and minerals—so they help your weight loss in multiple ways. When I say to serve yourself a “handful” in this case, it’s just for the sake of practicality. Don’t feel you need to limit your intake of greens in any way. If you’re using tongs to serve yourself veggies at a salad bar, feel free to squeeze as many between the claws as possible.

Because starches contain a fair amount of calories and raise blood sugar, they need to be contained—but not cut out, because they supply energy. A handful of starch is the amount that would fit in your cupped hand (in the case of potatoes, it’s typically one potato, and for bread, it’s one slice).

We’ll worry about maximizing the quality of what you’re eating in later installments of the program, but for the time being, it’s enough to just get in the habit of eating less and with balanced portions.

If your eating habits are so out of whack that you’re consuming Big Macs on a daily basis… Well, one Big Mac is better than two. It’s still more important that you focus on eating your meals—however imperfect they may be—according to the formula here than trying to make massive, sweeping changes that you can’t possibly sustain. I’d love for you to start eating lean chicken and broccoli every day, but if you’ve been eating fast food three times a day for years, I don’t expect you to make the switch overnight.

#3 Start Each Day With Protein

Studies have shown over and over that protein helps fill you up so you don’t overeat. It also helps you build and repair muscle, and burn more calories throughout the day—because it takes so much energy to digest.

Most people eat no protein in the morning and not enough throughout the day, so simply resolving to eat a high-protein breakfast can make a huge difference—and it doesn’t have to take long. The following are a few examples of protein-rich starters that you can make in minutes and take with you, or simply grab off a shelf in a deli or gas station.

● 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
● 1 cup cottage cheese
● 4 whole eggs (or a few whole with a few whites, if you prefer)
● 2 whole eggs and 2 oz of steak or chicken
● 1 handful smoked salmon
● protein smoothie made with 1 scoop protein powder

Each of these counts for about one serving of protein, and should be balanced with veggies/fruit and a starch. The next time you rush off to work in the morning, think about grabbing a yogurt, one piece of whole fruit, and a slice of toast, or a single-serving package of instant oatmeal.

One Perfect Day of Eating

Use the following sample menu as a guide for how to eat over the next four weeks. Note that this plan does not need to be followed verbatim every day, but is an example of how to portion your meals and choose your foods. Adjust it to your own tastes—if you don’t enjoy the process, you won’t stick with it.

Breakfast

Egg Scramble and Oatmeal

● 2 whole eggs
● ½ handful smoked salmon
● 2 large handfuls of spinach (cooked into the eggs)
● 1 small handful of cheese* (melted on the eggs)
● 1 handful oats (cooked as oatmeal)
● 1 handful berries (fresh or frozen)

*I don’t recommend you eat cheese by itself, but a handful (just enough to fill your palm, not all the way up to your fingers!) can be added occasionally to round out your protein serving.

Lunch

Tuna Salad

● 1 can tuna
● 1 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette*
● 1 handful cherry tomatoes
● 1 handful mixed greens
● 1 cup brown rice (tip: you can buy packs of brown rice that can be microwaved and are done in 90 seconds)

Mix all ingredients and enjoy

*Seasonings and condiments that contain sugar and fat should be limited to the serving size recommended on the container.

Afternoon Snack*

● 1 handful mixed nuts
● 1 apple
● Protein shake blended with a banana

*This is optional, and you should only consume a snack if it’s going to be several hours before you have dinner and you know you’ll feel like you’re starving otherwise. Additionally, you can have a snack if you’ve just worked out.

Dinner

● 1–3 handfuls portion of rotisserie chicken (from any grocery store)
● 2 large handfuls of arugula
● 1 large handful mixed, colorful veggies (picked up from the salad bar at your grocery store to make it easy)
● 1 cup black beans
● 1 tbsp oil
● 1 tbsp vinegar

Post Workout*

● 1 cup Greek yogurt
● 1 cup berries
● Protein shake blended with a banana

*Only have this snack if you work out after dinner.

Alcohol and Dessert

We won’t ban these in this stage of the plan but, as with obviously sub-par protein choices like hot dogs, we have to limit them. Here’s the rule: you can enjoy booze, cookies, soda, etc. only when you’re with other people at a social event. You will never consume them alone.

Not going out Friday night? That doesn’t mean you can stay in and throw a party for yourself. And when you do go out, give yourself a maximum of two alcoholic drinks or servings of junk food. No more than two nights per week also.

There you go. Get on it (er, Onnit!), and check out the next two installments when you’re ready!

Fat-Loss Nutrition Plan, Part 2.

Fat-Loss Nutrition Plan, Part 3.

The post New Year All You: 12-Week Fat Loss Nutrition Plan, Part 1 appeared first on Onnit Academy.

October 10^th marks the 30^th anniversary of World Mental Health Day, a date established by the World Federation for Mental Health—a partner of the World Health Organization (WHO)—to create awareness around mental health issues and promote self-care. This year’s theme is making mental health and well-being a global priority for all. As a health and wellness brand with a worldwide reach, Onnit is proud to recognize World Mental Health Day, and, in honor of the event, offer some education on mental health challenges and ways to manage them. Read on to see why mental health is so important, and what you can do to help yourself and others—no matter what life throws at you next.

What Is Mental Health?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mental health encompasses one’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being, affecting thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It determines how you handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Your mental health is closely linked to your physical health. Depression, for example, is known to increase the risk for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. By the same token, physical conditions can increase the risk of mental illness. 

With that said, it’s important to understand that poor mental health and mental illness are not synonymous terms. Mental illnesses are specific conditions that affect a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, or behavior—such as depression, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). A person can experience poor mental health and not be diagnosed with a mental illness, and one who is mentally ill can still have bouts of physical, mental, and social well being.

“Many people who have just broken up with a boyfriend or girlfriend will meet the criteria for major depression,” said Ronald C. Kessler, PhD, a mental health expert and the McNeil Family Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School (in an article for Brigham Health Magazine). “Does it mean they need psychotherapy? No. Would psychotherapy help? Maybe.” The point Kessler makes is that while some people develop severe conditions, we all suffer poor mental health and some point.

The CDC reports that poor mental health can result whenever demands placed on a person exceed their resources and coping abilities. This can come from working long hours, caring for others, financial challenges, and many other common problems. If poor mental health isn’t addressed, it can potentially lead to diagnosable mental illness. Abuse and trauma in early life, battling chronic medical conditions, chemical imbalances in the brain, drug and alcohol use, and feelings of loneliness and isolation can all contribute to the risk for mental illness.

Is Mental Illness Common?

For decades, mental illnesses carried a stigma. They often weren’t reported or diagnosed. But health authorities are beginning to compile some powerful statistics, showing that they’re not only common but also a clear and present danger to overall health and wellness.

Look at these numbers:

– More than 50% of Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their lifetime, and 1 in 5 will experience a mental illness in a given year

– 1 in 25 Americans lives with a serious mental illness, which may include bipolar disorder and schizophrenia

– People with depression have a 40% higher risk of developing cardiovascular and metabolic diseases

– 32.1% of U.S. adults with mental illness also experienced a substance use disorder in 2020 

– Depression and anxiety disorders cost the global economy $1 trillion in lost productivity annually 

“The most commonly-diagnosed mental illnesses are anxiety disorders, which affect around 19% of adults,” says Darrick Nicholas, Director of Communications and Engagement for Integral Care, an Austin-based mental health community center and support service. Depressive disorders and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are also widespread. “These statistics are not mutually exclusive,” says Nicholas, “since people may be diagnosed with multiple conditions.”

How To Tell If You (or Someone You Care About) Is Suffering

Nicholas says you can begin to identify mental health problems by paying attention to the following signs.

– Thoughts of suicide or other self-harming behaviors

– Feelings of sadness that last several weeks

– Loss of interest in activities that were once enjoyable

– Intrusive thoughts that cause distress

– Excessive worry or fear, or persistent feelings of extreme guilt

– Social withdrawal

– Extreme mood changes

– Confusion or inability to concentrate

– Developing strong beliefs, or seeing and hearing things that others do not experience or believe.

If you or a loved one experience any of the above, consider looking for mental health treatment. “In general, there is not a wrong first place to ask for help,” says Nicholas, “since a trained mental health professional can help determine what the most effective type of treatment may be. Though some types of symptoms may require medical treatment from a psychiatrist, such as persistent depression, thought disorder—including paranoid thinking and delusional belief systems—and major mood swings, many symptoms may respond to therapy.”

Ways To Care For Your Mental Health

While the stats around mental illness are daunting, there are many ways one can care for one’s self that are practical, easy to implement, and may go a long way toward managing any current problems you have, as well as warding off future illness.

The National Institute of Mental Health recommends the following:

Exercise

It’s one of the healthiest things you can possibly do in a day. Apart from the muscular, cardiovascular, and weight-management benefits you already know about, exercise has been shown to have positive impacts on the brain again and again. An article in the Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry explains that several forms of exercise—including favorites like jogging, swimming, cycling, walking, dancing, and even gardening—have been proven to reduce anxiety and depression. (Scientists think it’s because they boost circulation to the brain and influence the adrenal system, thereby promoting our ability to manage stress. It’s also been proposed that exercise serves as a distraction from our problems, and that the social component that often accompanies working out plays a role too.)

The piece goes on to say that exercise has also been shown to improve self-esteem and cognitive function. Fortunately, the authors note, a little movement goes a long way. “Thirty minutes of exercise of moderate intensity, such as brisk walking for three days a week, is sufficient for these health benefits. Moreover, these 30 minutes need not to be continuous; three 10-minute walks are believed to be as equally useful as one 30-minute walk.”

Eat Healthy

While many people think of caffeine and alcohol as ways to feel energized or relaxed, they can have the opposite effect—especially if over-consumed. A 2021 review explains that both chemicals, along with artificial sweeteners, can promote feelings of anxiety. Meanwhile, research in Nutrients showed that college students who added fruits and vegetables to their diets saw improved mental health and well being.

Interestingly, a review in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry noted that “Many of the easily noticeable food patterns that precede depression are the same as those that occur during depression. These may include poor appetite, skipping meals, and a dominant desire for sweet foods.” The authors continue that depressed people “make poor food choices, selecting foods that might actually contribute to depression.”

Sleep

Have one sleepless night and you’re bound to feel lousy the next day. But if you sleep badly on the regular your whole life could suffer—and that’s not an exaggeration. A review in Psychological Bulletin explains that sleep helps to regulate emotions and stabilize mood, so a lack of shuteye can actually amplify negative emotions while simultaneously blunting the positive feelings associated with rewarding experiences. In other words, if you don’t sleep well, you’ll never fully enjoy life!

The Sleep Foundation recommends setting habits that help establish consistent, restful sleep. These include maintaining a regular bedtime, dimming the lights and avoiding electronics in the evening, and maximizing natural light exposure during the day (i.e., get outside in the sun).

Relax

Sometimes you just gotta chill, and there are plenty of science-backed ways to do it that don’t involve Netflix. The National Institutes of Health suggest several relaxation techniques, including progressive muscle relaxation (tensing different muscles in the body and then releasing the tension to induce greater relaxation); visualization (picturing images that relax you); self-hypnosis; and breathing exercises.

One review found that diaphragmatic breathing helped to lower stress, as shown by both subjects’ self-reported feedback and physiological markers. 

Get Organized

Getting your sh*t together—even in the simplest ways—can really put your mind at ease. The National Institutes of Health recommend organizing your daily tasks and setting priorities (hint: try “to-do” lists). Get comfortable with saying no to requests or favors that you don’t have time for and that make you feel overwhelmed. You should also spend the end of the day focusing on what you have accomplished, rather than dwelling on what may be unfinished. 

Practice Gratitude

Just as you shouldn’t think about what tasks remain undone, you shouldn’t brood over what you don’t have. In fact, doing just the opposite—showing gratitude for all the good things in your life—is enormously uplifting. Research collected by UC Berkeley indicates that gratitude practice improves mood, self-esteem, relationships, and can even ward off depression and suicidal thoughts.

Keep a journal where you list all the things you’re grateful for each day, and make a point of telling the people you care about that you appreciate them. Make time to talk with friends about what you’re both happy with in your lives.

Stay Connected

“I am a rock; I am an iiiiisland” may make for good song lyrics, but it’s not healthy for the mind or the body. Research cited in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine shows that maintaining social relationships doesn’t just give you plans on Saturday nights—it helps you stay alive.

The authors write, “It is evident that social connection has substantial impacts in many categories of health, from weight management, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression. Some psychiatrists go so far as comparing social connection to vitamins: ‘just as we need vitamin C each day, we also need a dose of the human moment—positive contact with other people.’” They go on to argue that social connection should be considered as vital to human survival as the obvious essentials like food, water, vitamins, and minerals. 

The researchers recommend socializing with friends and family on a daily basis—or at least one per week. (Note: they specify that these should be people you actually like and feel connected to: not your creepy uncle or the neighbor who steals your morning paper.) You can connect face-to-face, or via phone or Skype/Facetime. 

For more help supporting mental health, check out Integral Care’s Mental Health Toolkit, co-created with the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The kit contains guides on self-care and gratitude practices, mental health podcasts to listen to, and more. See also their resources page and helpine. 

And on October 10th, use social media to show us how you stay balanced. Post about how you’re changing your diet, adjusting your sleep routine, going to therapy, taking a walk, etc. See our Instagram giveaway on World Mental Health Day for more.

The post 7 Ways To Support Mental Health When Life Gets Overwhelming appeared first on Onnit Academy.

The Primal Swoledier recently gave an interview to Onnit Chief Fitness Officer John Wolf (who also happens to be one of Leija’s earliest mentors) for our Onnit Stories series, where we talk to people on camera about how they changed their lives with Onnit’s help. See Leija’s interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video. You can stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV).

Eric Leija Show Notes

3:45 – How Eric Got Onnit

My older brother [Juan Leija] was good friends with the former CEO of Onnit, Aubrey Marcus, going back 10 or 12 years now. We all trained MMA together in what we called El Garaje—Aubrey’s old garage gym. We would all go in there, beat each other up, and that’s where I first met Aubrey. He actually gave me a bloody nose. I was only 12 years old at the time, and he beat me up [laughs].

No, just kidding, I was in high school at the time, and I had it coming. I was like, “I’ll take this guy,” but then he gave me a bloody nose. Aubrey’s got reach! [Laughs]

We all connected originally through our mutual friend, Roger Huerta, who was a UFC fighter back in the day. He got us into all the unconventional training methods, like using kettlebells. We all gravitated toward the strength and conditioning that was a little bit more unconventional at the time, and maybe still is.

8:05 – On Being Internet Famous

I’m grateful for the attention and the eyes that I’ve been able to get. A lot of people say I’ve helped them get back into movement, back into working out, when they had previously gotten injured or just fell off the rails. They appreciate the content and the videos that I put out, and it motivates them to work out and get back in shape. When people recognize me on the streets and they tell me stuff like, “Oh, you helped me get through COVID; you helped me stay sane with your workouts,” it’s super humbling. I want to keep that up. I want to keep trying to inspire people while also being the best that I can be. The more I focus on myself, staying healthy, and doing good things, the more people see that and do similar things, and we all get better together.

At Onnit, we have such a huge platform. I try to make the most of it, because our community is amazing. One of my goals, personally, is to start traveling more and teaching more workshops and connecting with even more people. So, people out there, let me know where you want me to go!

10:35 – John and Eric Discuss Eric’s Early Days at Onnit

John Wolf: What some people may not realize about you is that you maintain humility. You’ve always been willing to help everybody at any time. You’ve never tried to act as if you’re above doing the hard work. I remember when I came to Onnit. I interviewed with Aubrey and he said, “All right, show us what you know.” So I started leading a kettlebell workout, and you were in it. You busted out set after set, and then you said, “I gotta go back and pack more kettlebells,” because at that time you were working in our warehouse. 

Eric: Yeah, dude. Aubrey was my friend back in the day, and when I graduated high school, I went to college but I needed help paying the bills. I asked Aubrey, “Is there any opportunity for me at Onnit?” He said, “Yeah. Come work in the warehouse. We need your help. We need your muscles.”

So, I started off in the warehouse, taping up boxes and sending off kettlebells to people. I’m grateful for that opportunity because it’s led to all this. Now I’m all about trying to make sure that I keep giving back. I feel like, in general, that’s how life should be—you should always give more than you’re receiving. Eventually, the tides will turn and you’ll end up getting things that you never even dreamed of to come your way. I always try to say yes to opportunities and do what I can to help, and I’ve found that it always comes back to me when I do.

17:10 – How Onnit Certs Helped

The most important phase of my life was all those weekends I spent learning from you, John, at the Onnit certs we put on. For a while, it felt like we were doing a certification or a workshop every other weekend, and it was awesome. I got to see movement practiced from different perspectives, and I expanded my knowledge on training and so many other things. To this day, I’m still incorporating those things that I learned, and expanding on them. The goal going forward, especially after the pandemic, is to continue teaching my own workshops, but also get more education. For me, the most enriching part of being a trainer is connecting with other coaches and also regular Joes who just want to learn how to move. We learn so much from each other because everybody’s got their own way of looking at things.

Through my role as a coach, I’ve gotten to connect with leaders in our industry—people like Dr. Mark Cheng, the FRC crew [Functional Range Conditioning certification], and Dr. Andreo Spina. Ken Blackburn put me through my first kettlebell certification, the IKFF one. I took Dr. John Rusin’s PPSC course. Then, of course, you, John, and Shane Heins [Onnit’s Director of Community Engagement], have been huge influences. Without you guys, I wouldn’t be here. You showed me the way. I’m so grateful to have met you, trained with you, and had you both as mentors. 

Before you guys, I used to be scared to ask for help. I had the fake-it-till-you-make-it attitude. But when I heard you and Shane speak at these certifications, you’d say, “Empty your cup, so you can fill it and have more to share.” That made me not afraid to ask questions and get help. All fitness coaches should combine forces and work together. Apart from all the movement skills I learned at the certs, the underlying message was always to be open and non-dogmatic in your thinking. 

24:47 – How Primal Swoledier Eats

Right now I eat a lot of white rice. I’ve been training really hard and I make this garlic rice to help me recover—it’s so delicious. For protein, I eat a lot of chicken, steak, and fish. I try not to eat a lot of processed carbs. I’ll eat white rice, especially post-workout, and then tons of veggies. Every now and then I’ll have a cheeseburger if I’m in New York City and I’m like, “You know what? I’m just going to eat this burger or eat this pizza.” But, 90% of the time, I like to do home-cooked meals.

30:55 – Eric’s Favorite Unconventional Equipment

Definitely the kettlebell. OK, also the slush ropes [a hybrid jump rope and battle rope that can be used in flows to work mobility and conditioning]. They’re fun, man. I’m connecting with AJ Londono, who’s @flowwithaj on Instagram, to learn more about slush ropes. He’s coming with me to New York this weekend to help me coach a workout at the Adidas store. We’re also going to be in the Dominican Republic in September, teaching people how to rope flow. We’re going to have some fun out there in the DR.

34:05 – Erics’s Favorite Supplements

It’s a toss up between the Total Nitric Oxide^® and Shroom Tech^® SPORT. I can really feel my endurance when I take Shroom Tech SPORT and I ride my bike around the neighborhood, or when I’m doing boxing on the punching bag. When I don’t take it, I feel like I’m moving through cement. So I take four capsules in the morning before I do my cardio. And I like to take the nitric oxide before my weight training, because it gives me some sick pumps, and I like looking vascular when I’m working out [laughs]. I also love Onnit’s protein powders—the grass-fed whey is super high quality. The new Protein Bites too. The Cookies N’ Cream flavor… the white coating around the chocolate is delicious. I didn’t know I needed that in my life until now. 

38:25 – Bike Recommendations

I’m not a bike expert. I just got into riding about a year ago and I have a gravel bike—but I don’t even know what that means. It was a gift, and I ended up getting another one for my mother recently. A gravel bike can be a little bit pricier than a road bike because it’s supposed to be able to go onto the road and on the trails. I got my mom the gravel bike because I want to take her on the trails with me. She’s pushing 56, and I’m trying to get her back in the gym, but also riding with me. She says that riding a bicycle for her is a little bit more fun than picking up kettlebells. She likes to ride around at sunset and we’ve been trying to hit it at least two or three times a week in the evenings.

40:30 – The Last Movie Eric Liked

Cyrano. It has the guy who plays Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones in it [Peter Dinklage]. It was so good. I hadn’t read that story before, so it caught me by surprise how good it was.

42:00 – Does Eric Take Caffeine?

I love caffeine. But I go through phases. I’ll go really hard taking it for a few weeks and then I’m like, “OK, I’m starting to burn out a little bit. I’m consuming way too much caffeine. Let me take a little bit of a break.” I’ll take a week or two off from it to let my adrenals reset. Then I’ll do only Shroom Tech SPORT, since it doesn’t have a lot of caffeine, but it still helps me get that energy that I need. I hate having to drinking 1,000 milligrams or more of caffeine just to feel something. You got to cut back and try to take it easy when it gets to that point.

I make sure to stop taking caffeine no later than two o’clock. Before bed, I’ll take some New MOOD^® or some magnesium. That always helps me unwind and relax before bed, and it gives me some cool dreams too.

44:00 – How Eric Does Kettlebell Flows

When I was starting out, I was just having fun and putting together movements that felt natural. I’m really into superheroes and comic books, so I was like, “Oh it would look so cool, and I bet it would feel badass, if I did this with the kettlebell, and then landed in a kneeling position, and then cleaned it over here, and then snatched it.” I was just trying to be creative like that. Now I’ve nailed down the movements that I like, but I want to add more to the arsenal and expand it. And so that’s where I’m at right now—I’m trying to be even more creative again and step it up.

46:15 – His Workout Playlist

You don’t want to listen to what I’m listening to [laughs]. I have a whole lot of Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez. No, I’m just kidding. Honestly, my friends send me playlists. I listen to my friends’ playlist because I’m so bad at creating my own. If I make one, I’ll listen to the same stuff for years. That’s why I just ask my friends, “Hey, send me the dope stuff you’re listening to now.” Go look at @flowwithaj. Just go through his reels and look at all his tracks. 

47:35 – Surviving COVID-19

It was rough. If you’re coming back from COVID, I would suggest not worrying about working out. Make sure you’re eating, drinking plenty of fluids. I’m no doctor, but you don’t want to stress your body out more than it’s already being stressed out when it’s sick. So talk to your doctor and see when it’s OK to start working out again. I listened to my doctor and she said, “If you can breathe, if you’re not coughing, then it’s OK to start doing some body weight movements and just make sure you’re not pushing yourself too hard, too fast.” 

50:10 – Kettlebell Weight Recommendations

John: We have a viewer who asks, “I’m 5’6″ and weigh 150 pounds. What size kettlebell should I use?”

Eric: For most males I recommend starting off with a 12 kilogram bell, which is about 25 pounds. That’s pretty standard. The 16kg can get heavy with overhead pressing, but you may want to get a 12 and a 16kg, because eventually you want to be able to do some swings with a heavier weight.

52:10 – What He Eats On Cheat Days

There’s no crappy food, in my opinion. It’s all amazing and delicious [laughs]. But if I cave in, I’ll order an Italian sandwich with tons of cheese. I’ll get three different cheeses, all the meats, and just eat that all day—this huge sandwich. I love sandwiches and burgers and pizzas.

Oh, man, there’s this pizza that I had recently in New York. It was a tie-dye pizza at this place called Ruby Rosa. It’s New York style pizza, thin crust, but it had three different sauces. And I added pepperonis, which apparently you’re not supposed to do, but I love pepperoni, so I don’t care. It had pesto, vodka sauce, and tomato sauce. Oh, dude, it was amazing. Best pizza I ever had.

But I don’t really have cheat days. I feel like having a cheat day makes me look at food as punishment, or a reward, when it should just be looked at as nutrition. Healthy foods can taste good, so when I cook at home, I try to make things taste good. A cheat meal for me is not necessarily something that’s fast food. When I cheat, I’m usually just indulging in a little bit extra of what I’d normally have. I’ll have an extra helping of some rib eye with some avocado. Just eating more than I usually would is like a cheat for me. I still try to make sure I’m eating high quality foods.

You pay a price for eating processed foods like junk food, fast food, and drinking alcohol… I feel like crap for a long time afterward. Especially as I as get older. When I was 21, 22, 23, I could eat whatever I wanted and feel fine. Now, I’m like, “Whoa, this is what the older guys were talking about. This sucks.” So be more mindful of what you eat, but you also have to level up your cooking game. There’s this funny reel that I shared the other day of this big Mexican guy cooking some fish. The narrator says, “Marry somebody who can cook, because beauty fades, but hunger doesn’t.” [Laughs]

56:10 – How He Trained Before Kettlebells

I grew up doing barbell training and dumbbells, but it wasn’t until I started using kettlebells that I really learned the proper mechanics of how to move. Kettlebells allowed me to condition my body using lighter weights. Then, when I went back to training with barbells, I was stronger than ever. Now, I like to combine both kinds of training so that I can keep maximizing my gains in all areas—mobility, strength, and conditioning. That comes from using all the tools at your disposal.

57:30 – Does Eric Ever Get Off Track with His Training?

I used to when I would train solo. But now that I’ve created a training group where we hold each other accountable, it’s a lot harder to fall off track. You have to find a team and surround yourself with them, even if it’s virtually. Connecting with people online can be just as powerful. You can check in with each other on Facebook and support each other [Editor’s note: the Onnit Tribe exists for this reason]. Check in, like, “I did the workout today. How did you do? How was it? How’d you feel?” It’s so much easier to stay on track when your peers are also there with you because you’re like, “Damn, I can’t give up because I’ll let down my team.”

59:10 – How You Can Train with Eric In Person

Stay tuned to my social media channels. I’ll be pumping out events that I have coming up. I’m currently planning workshops for the rest of the year, and you’re totally welcome to come to any one of them. You can also come and work out with me and we can hang after and have a Q&A. Sign up for my email list [at ericleija.com].

1:00:50 – One Training Tip for Everybody

Keep showing up. Even if you’re not feeling it, just show up. Obviously, if you’re hurting, don’t injure yourself further, but show up and be consistent with your training, because you’re not always going to feel motivated. You’re not always going to have all this energy to crush it, and you don’t need to. You can go hard some days, and focus on mobility other days, but do something. That’ll keep you on track.

When I used to think, “Go hard every single day,” I used to get hurt a lot. I used to burn myself out. Now that I’ve balanced it out, I’ll go hard some days and then I’ll do an active recovery day where I just go cycle around the neighborhood. As long as you’re doing a little something every day, that’s enough.

See our profile on Eric Leija, chronicling how he went from a chubby kid to the beast he is today.

The post “Give More Than You Receive”: Eric Leija’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

When injury forced Matt Vincent to retire from his athletic career, he had to start viewing it not as “the end” but rather the end of a chapter of life. Like any good story, one chapter leads into another, and the main character moves forward. To paraphrase Vincent, most adventure stories don’t peak in Chapter 3.

Vincent tells his tale, to Shane Heins, Onnit’s Director of Community Engagement, in this week’s Onnit Story—our ongoing series of interviews with people who have changed their lives with Onnit’s assistance. See the video of their interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video. You can stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV), where a new one appears every other week.

Matt Vincent Show Notes

3:20 – Where Matt Vincent and Onnit Intersected

I’d been following the brand for a long time and had been using Alpha BRAIN^®. Then I got to know Kyle Kingsbury [Onnit’s former Director of Total Human Optimization] through his powerlifting coach, Jesse Burdick. When Kyle was still fighting in the UFC, he and Burdick were both based in Pleasanton, California, and I was doing some work out that way at that time. Then Kyle moved to Austin to be part of Onnit, and I came over to visit him and got introduced to Aubrey [Marcus, co-founder of Onnit]. I’ve worked with the team ever since as an ambassador.

4:20 – Matt’s Background

In my former life, I was a Highland Games World Champion.  I traveled around the world competing from 2008 until 2016. I picked up two world championships and a bunch of second places in that time, but it came to an end when my right knee gave out. I tried to fix it, and that went poorly—nine knee surgeries and a total knee replacement at age 36.

That was a really hard thing to deal with—losing my identity and having to figure out how to go forward from there. I tried to see how I could get better at everything else in my life the way that I got better at sports. I wanted to make the most of everything from my mindset, to movement, to feeling better, to rehab, to my business, to relationships. After retiring from competition, I got into the podcasting space and some other stuff, and that’s when I ran into Kyle Kingsbury and, through him, Onnit.

7:00 – The Challenge of Letting The Past Go

I had played football and then gotten into strongman and powerlifting and weightlifting, and finally the Highland Games. That’s really where I was the best. When that ended, it was really, really tough, because I knew that none of my PR’s from that sport or the world championship were going to be on my tombstone. Those were just things I did, and that doesn’t define your life. But I had never prepared to NOT be an athlete, and now, all of a sudden, I had to accept it all at once. In a six-month period, I had gone from taking second place at the world championships to traveling with a cane and being unable to walk up and down stairs.

I had to realize that this machine I have, that I’d trusted for so long—all these physical things I could do—was gone. It was like if I had spent 20 years learning how to play guitar and then I lost my hands. That was really scary, because it seemed like all the coolest shit I’ve ever done is now in my past, and going forward I’m just going to be a civilian.

That’s how I felt—like the best I could do was have a normal life. I had been working in the petrochemical industry doing outside sales for 10 years, and I was also 13 years into a marriage that I didn’t see a future in. I thought, “What am I doing?” These chapters of our lives end, and you have to ask, “What am I going to do going forward?” I learned to become excited about the process, because I know that I can make the next chapter as awesome as the previous one if I put the same passion into it. If I look at my life as a book full of chapters, if the coolest shit in the book happened in chapter three, that’s a terrible book [laughs]. I want my future to be more exciting than my past, and it’s up to me to make that happen.

12:20 – Defining Success

I grew up with this idea that you could be whatever you want, as long as you worked really hard at it. But that’s not true. Life doesn’t work like that. You can always make progress, but success has to be something you define yourself. For me, success is spending as many days and weeks of my life as I can doing things that light my fucking fire—and those things are not comfortable.

I want to be uncomfortable and push myself, because that’s what got me through the first three chapters of life. That’s how I got stronger in the weight room. If I want my mind and spirit to do the same, I have to push them as well. I want them to adapt, to be able to handle more things. I accept that there’s got to be some stress, because the stuff I’m interested in doing is hard. 

15:20 – From Superhuman to Super Human

I dealt with eight knee-surgery rehabs that didn’t work, and I treated each one the same—as if it were training for competition, which is to say that I’m capable of suffering through anything if there’s light at the end of the tunnel. I can deal with almost any bullshit if I know it will come to an end.

But being tough wasn’t enough to get my life on track. It took a lot of inward looking, asking myself, “So what are you actually into? This sports thing is gone, so let’s stop pissing and moaning, and let’s figure out what we can do about the things we can control.” I started to do everything I could to address my chronic pain and feel better. I dove into supplementation, cold therapy, and breathwork. I got psychotherapy and managed my diet and nutrition better.

All of that took me from 290 pounds to 230 pounds, and I switched from a lot of strength training to endurance training. I still want to know my edges and my limits, and the endurance stuff has brought a lot of those challenges forward and taught me so much. Leaning into sports that I knew I’d suck at is tough. I’m a 230-pound dude with a fake leg. I’m never going to be a world champion endurance athlete, but I don’t give a shit about that anymore. There’s a big ego challenge going from being best in the world at a thing to being a shitty runner. But if I can’t bench 400 pounds anymore, what does that mean? It doesn’t mean shit. It also doesn’t change that I used to be able to bench in the mid 400s. I don’t have to still hold on and drag those memories with me to know that I did them.

So I started asking myself what other new things I can bring to the table. I would love to be able to look back one day and say, “Hey, at one point in my life, I was a world champion Highland Games athlete. I’ve also done some endurance stuff. I’ve also been able to travel the world.” That’s so much more interesting to me as a life story, because the lessons I learned from becoming the best in the world at one thing apply to everything else I want to get good at. Sports taught me to consistently show up. I know it took me 12 and a half years of throwing before I was my best, so I know it may take me 12 years to get good at something else I set my mind to. It makes me think of the analogy, “When is the best time to plant a tree?” Well it was 20 years ago—or today.

21:30 – Why The Work Is Better Than The Reward

The journey is the best part of the path to any goal. It’s the process that you get all the good from—not the moment of glory that happens at the end. No one writes a book about the view from Everest—it’s always about the climb.

No one gives a shit that I won the Highland Games. It’s a sport that no one even knows about. Can you name any of the events? More people would be impressed if I said I was the world champion at darts, because at least most people have played darts. My point is, if it doesn’t matter to me, then it doesn’t matter. If I’m doing a pursuit because I think I’ll get X reward, or I’ll be loved, or I’ll be accepted, it’s a fucking lie and a fallacy. I’ll be loved because I love me, and I’ll be good because I believe I’m good and I show up for me. I don’t need someone else to motivate me to do it. I’m also aware that I’m dying—a little more each day. I figure I have about 1,175 weeks left to live. So, with that number in mind, with all these goals I have, I better get to it.

23:20 – Shane and Matt Talk About the Perspective of Mortality

Shane Heins: Thinking about your life in terms of weeks left  is a powerful way of looking at things. I had a conversation with my dad a few years ago, and he lives in Canada. I usually get up there every two years to visit. He was talking about how much longer he thinks he’ll live and he said that if I visit every two years like I have been, that means we only have 10 visits left. There was a feeling in my stomach when he said that and I thought, “That’s one way to look at it.”

Matt: ​​Most of us don’t know when our last conversation with someone will be. I thought I’d retire from competition by leaving my shoes out on the field, but instead I finished the season, got an elective ACL surgery, and just never came back. The universe felt differently, and so here we are.

25:35 – Matt’s Travels

I’m currently in Wyoming, parked outside of a coffee shop, stealing their wifi. I live in St. Louis. My girlfriend and I are road tripping out to Vegas for Arkadia, a Fit For Service event. Travel is important to me. I liked competing, but I realize now that competing was a scam to get to travel and be around my buddies. That’s the good shit. The good shit is wandering around Iceland when the sun’s up at midnight, having beers with your friends. Throwing rocks in a field as a Highland Games athlete was just an excuse to be there. So yeah, I travel a lot. This is my fourth cross-country road trip in the last 70 days.

This year alone, I’ve been to Patagonia and done a week-long, 1000-mile motorcycle trip through Florida. Also, a 1000-mile motorcycle trip through California and the Pacific Northwest. I go to Alaska next month and Bali in October. Spending two weeks in one place feels like a long haul for me. I get the itch to travel again.

Traveling offers a perspective change. I’m actually seeing the world from a different location. I’m seeing new people and being around different cultures. I’m getting a chance to share ideas with people outside of my echo chamber. I’m getting a chance to see how other people live and learn from them. I have quite a number of people that I consider mentors, and I’ve been lucky enough to make friends with them and stay with them. I made a decision long ago that I have to see these people once a quarter—that’s a non-negotiable. I’ll figure out whatever I need to do in my life to make that happen, whether that’s having a podcast that facilitates travel, or taking any excuse I can get to get up and go. I’ll happily get rid of everything and live in a van long before I stay stationary. If I want to take big expeditions, the clock’s ticking on those things.

29:50 – The Danger of Getting What You Want

Shane: I love how you described our experience as being like an echo chamber. It’s more accentuated now than ever because we’re all online, in this digital world, where the things that we look at the most are the things that come back to us. The people that we follow are the ones we hear the most repetitively. It can be difficult to step outside of that. You have to work to search out new perspectives.

Matt: Yes, and it’s easy to blame the algorithms, blame bots, blame disinformation. Trying to get Instagram, or Facebook, or TikTok, or any of the social media that you operate on to change their side of it to protect you seems really dumb to me—to ask them to curtail it. It’s all a reflection of you. It’s showing you the things that you invest the most time in. It’s not intended to make you angry, but for many of us, it does. I guarantee you when people made these algorithms that deliver personalized content, they were like, “This will be great. It’ll show people more of the things they’re into.” No one asked, “What if someone only looks at shit they hate?” They weren’t thinking that people would do that, but we do [laughs]. Because we’re a really, really weird creature.

Learning to look at things from a different perspective really hit me when my dad passed away. He died in 2014 from pancreatic cancer. I think about my dad growing up in Sulphur, Louisiana, which is where I grew up. He got married to a woman from there, my mom, and all their friends were from there. Most of them worked the same job he had—in and out of refineries—and went fishing and did the same shit he did. If my dad had ever had a real existential crisis, who could he call? He could only reach out to people he’s always known who have had the same exact life experience.

I’m glad that the network of friends that I’ve been able to create didn’t find me. I went out and found them. I now have people that can really help me who look at the world so much differently than I do. That’s been incredible for me to be around.

37:40  – What Matt Got From Onnit

Something I’ve learned from Onnit is that if I can’t acknowledge my weaknesses, I’ll never be able to go after them. It takes some awareness to sit there and be like, “Man, I handled that poorly.” I’ve had to figure out how to better manage stress and anxiety so that I can use it as energy to do the things I want to do. I realize now that failures are teachers, and figuring out how to fail and try stuff is so much more important than thinking that success is what teaches you, because it doesn’t.

41:00 – Matt’s Favorite Supplement

Alpha BRAIN^® Black Label. I like that extra bit that comes with it. I feel better using it, and I like what I accomplish when taking it. Total Human^® is next, just because I’m really lazy when it comes to supplements and I don’t remember to take all the ones I need. Total Human^® makes that convenient by having so many of them in one place. I take my Total Human^® pack first thing in the morning. Then, after I work out, I’ll typically do a protein shake. I use the grass-fed Whey Protein from Onnit, and I’ll have that with Alpha BRAIN^® Black Label.

43:20 – Matt’s Favorite Food Product

​​The Protein Bites are killer. I try to limit my intake on those because I can just sit there and eat 20 or 30 of them in a sitting.

45:35 – Favorite Workout Tools

Kettlebells and steel maces. As a thrower, nothing weighs very much. None of the stuff we throw is very heavy. I mean, the heaviest weight we’ll throw is 56 pounds. So I had to learn to apply force quickly and move in a certain order to accomplish the job well. The weight isn’t as important as the amount of the effort I can put into the actual implement. So I got a lot of what I loved about throwing as an athlete from playing with kettlebells and maces, and some of the steel clubs. Even now, I still want to be a full-body athlete who can move.

49:10 – Training Around Pain 

I get questions from people about training programs a lot. Something like, “The kettlebell clean kills my wrist. What can I do?” I say stop fucking cleaning. Do a swing and leave your hand out front—you’ll get everything from that movement that you would from a full clean other than a small bit of eccentric load at the end of the range of motion. So don’t throw out the whole program because your wrist can’t support the weight. Do everything else except that. Adjust however you need to—the principles are the important things.

I think if the 29 year-old me, who was just coming off of a world championship, saw how I currently train, he’d be very confused. He’d probably yell at me a lot. But he’s been wrong before [laughs].

56:55 – Matt’s Favorite Highland Games Memory

It was 2014, my first world championship. I was down a point and a half going into the final event, which was like a shot put throw but with a 16-pound stone. In my last throw of the event, I got it together and ended up taking first by having a four-foot bigger throw than I had had all day. Without that, I couldn’t have won. That was one of those moments that tests whether all the training prepared you or not, and in that case it did. I had the confidence to show up when I really needed to.

The post “Life Is A Book of Chapters”: Matt Vincent’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

In this week’s Onnit Story, Mariana reveals to Chief Fitness Officer John Wolf how the Tribe, the Onnit 6 Challenge, and the steel mace have helped on her fitness journey, and led to her making some of the best friends she’s ever known. See the video of their interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video. You can stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV), where a new one appears regularly.

Mariana Fuentes-Smith Show Notes

4:50 – How Mariana Found Onnit

Mariana Fuentes-Smith: A year ago, I saw one of the trainers that I follow online—Hannah Eden—working with a steel mace, and I just thought, “Oh my gosh, I wish I could do that.” I started looking into it, and I saw that a new Onnit 6 Challenge was about to start. So I hurried up and bought me a mace and set up for the Challenge. And, well, here we are.

John Wolf: Just to clarify for anybody watching, we do three, six-week lifestyle transformation challenges throughout the year. They cover the first three seasons of the year, but we take off the holiday season at the end of the year because there’s so much going on with everybody’s lives. These are called the Onnit 6 Challenges, and they’re a big community event for us.

8:45 – Meet The Onnit Tribe

Mariana: The Onnit Tribe is the most welcoming community that I have ever been a part of. The people in there are all just so honest and real about their journey, and they make you feel comfortable about sharing your story. I’ve been very active ever since the first day that I joined, meaning I post my workouts in the group literally every day. But during my first Challenge, I didn’t interact with the members—I just sort of watched how everything was. Afterward, I took a little time away from the Tribe. Then, for the next Challenge, I jumped into the group and I was like, “OK, there’s no way I can leave these people.” Now they just feel like family and it’s gotten better and better.

John: For the people at home, if you search Onnit Tribe on Facebook, you’ll see the group pop up. You’ll go through a brief interview to make sure you’re not a bot, and then you’ll be approved to come in. Then maybe you’ll experience what Mariana is talking about, which is this supportive vibe that is the Tribe.

Mariana: I think it’s a really big part of the Onnit 6 Challenge. I know there are a lot of people that do the Onnit 6 workouts but don’t join the Tribe, and that’s fine, but I think if you’re looking for support, you’re definitely going to find it there. And we have a lot of fun.

12:20 – Why Sharing Is Caring

Mariana: One of the reasons I like to share videos of my workouts within the group is that I want people to feel comfortable doing that themselves. I always tell people it’s a good way to check on your form. We ask each other for help in the Tribe all the time—everybody helping everybody is really what it comes down to.

John: I think there’s a lot of power in what you’re saying. “Hey, I’m going to put myself out there in this format for everybody to see. I’m documenting my journey, but I’m doing it in a way that’s public and open and vulnerable.” I think it takes leaders being vulnerable to permit other people who might not feel so comfortable to do the same. That’s a really big part of the growth that our Tribe members experience.

Mariana: When I am able to help somebody else with whatever it is they’re asking about, it really fills me. It makes me feel great. And that helps my journey too. This last Challenge was really hard, and I started asking others for help, and that’s something that I don’t ever do. But I’ve realized that I can ask for help and it’s fine. I mean, it’s really easy for me to try and help somebody else. It just comes naturally. But to receive? That’s like, “Ugh, I don’t know how I feel about this.” But I’m getting used to it. I’m getting better at it.

20:12 – What Kind of Relationships Can You Develop Through A Keyboard?

Mariana: I found my long lost sister through the Onnit Tribe [laughs]. Another member, my dear Yvonne—better known in the Tribe as Bonbon. I actually met her through a different group before I joined the Onnit community, but we didn’t really connect then. Through Onnit, we started commenting on each other’s posts. By the time we did the first Onnit 6 Challenge of this year, we were basically dressing alike. I convinced her to get the same shirt as me, which had a frog on it [laughs].

We started talking more and more every day. I was making a trip to Arizona, and Yvonne lives there, so I was like, “OK, we have to meet.” We ended up spending four hours together, just laughing and talking about everything. We were laughing like crazy. People were walking by with looks on their faces like, “What is going on?” It was amazing, and now I just want to meet everybody in the Tribe.

John: That’s very reaffirming, because these days, with so many interactions happening online, you’re left wondering, “Who is this person, really?” You see them post things about themselves, but that doesn’t mean you’re seeing the real version of that person. I think, even in the Tribe, we aren’t all always the person we show up as in the community, but we’re all aspiring to be that person—the best version of ourselves.

Mariana: Yes, and that’s why in this last Challenge I really tried to share as much as possible about how I was feeling so people know it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. We all go through stuff, and sometimes we don’t feel like working out. We don’t always feel our best, but we’re always showing up to support each other in the Tribe.

23:50 – How John Used The Tribe To Cope With A Family Tragedy

John: A lot of us have shared a lot of our harder experiences in the Tribe. Personally, I leaned on the Tribe recently after the loss of my younger brother—a 29 year-old young man with two children, including a seven-month old girl.

I don’t know that I’ve ever felt as comfortable or as genuinely accepted during a time when I was so distraught with everything. This community never made me feel anything less than 100% supported.

25:30 – The New Onnit 6 Challenge Themes

John: At the beginning of this year, we changed the way that we select the champions of the Onnit 6 Challenge. We now have six different themed categories. Before, we had this binary thing where there was a male winner and a female winner, but now we select a winner for each of six categories. So it’s not like there’s one overall winner anymore—there are people who are champions of the different themes—community, performance, personal growth, emotional healing, under age 40, and over 40. Mariana, you were one of those people last time.

Mariana: I was the Community champion. It’s hard to decide which category to enter because you change in so many ways during the Challenges. It’s hard to say which area of your life you developed the most. But I made a lot of connections with the other members during that Challenge, so Community felt like the right one to go for. You really have to decide which category to enter yourself in at the end of the Challenge, because you never know what direction you’re going to develop in over the course of the Challenge.

31:30 – Challenges Within The Challenges

Mariana: The Tribe has its own mini-competitions that members participate in to stay engaged. Many of them aren’t fitness themed at all—they’re just for fun. For instance, we have a lip-sync challenge.

John: We’ve had dance-offs where people rock their favorite song and just dance. Barry Peterson started that one. We also have a gratitude challenge, where you call out a member of the Tribe and tell them in a post what you appreciate about them.

33:00 – The Onnit Tribe Meetup

Mariana: We are planning an Onnit Tribe meetup in Austin, Texas, this October. I’m so excited about it.

John: Onnit has committed to host it, but we’re at the mercy of the Tribe. You guys will tell us what you want to do there. It’s going to be your show.

Mariana: We’ll definitely have a group workout and yoga, and, because we’re in Texas, we’re going to eat tacos!

37:20 – Mariana’s Favorite Workout Tool

Mariana: I think it’s the steel mace. I did the Onnit 6 Barbell program twice. I’m going to do the Onnit 6 Steel Club for the next challenge, and I’m recruiting team members for it, so whoever wants to sign up for that… But I think the steel mace is still my favorite piece of equipment. It’s just cool! It makes me feel powerful. At the same time, oh my gosh, it burns. The burn in the shoulders is real. There’s an exercise we do called the death march, and that makes everything burn, including my brain [laughs].

John: There’s a coordination challenge with that move. Before it feels cool, it may feel like you have two left feet for a little while. But once you get comfortable with it, it’s like you have a dance partner when you work out.

39:30 – Mariana’s Favorite Supplements

Mariana: I love the Vanilla Whey Protein. It’s the only brand I’m able to drink, because I don’t like the aftertaste of most protein shakes, and Onnit’s doesn’t have any, in my opinion. I also love HYDRATech^™ Instant. Sometimes I mix both the Tangerine and Lime flavors together. It tastes like a margarita, if you ask me. Also New MOOD®

has been a huge help. I had the hardest time sleeping for a long time. I tried New MOOD® after the first Challenge and I was hooked. It made a huge difference.

43:45 – Mariana’s Favorite Onnit 6 Challenge

Mariana: I did the barbell one twice, mainly because when I did it the first time I did it without the Tribe, and the second time I did it with them because I wanted to see the difference—and it did make a huge difference. I recruited a lot of people to do it with me, so we had a huge Team Barbell. Now I’m looking forward to the Onnit 6 Hydrocore.

John: That’s a to-be-released program. But people in the Tribe are already getting a whiff of it.

47:00 – What Keeps Mariana Consistent

Mariana: When I first started working out, it was for my daughter. She had just started gymnastics, and I was like, “How do you do this? I don’t understand how you can move like that. It’s ridiculous.” So that’s really what got me into fitness, just watching her do all these crazy things. I was like, “I want to do that too.” Maybe not everything that she does, but I’m trying to keep up with her.

When I joined the Onnit community, Kaysee Brooks and Freddy Lopez were two people that I was watching. I always thought, “Kaysee’s just so cool. She’s so cute. I love her.” And the more time that I spend with the community now, I feel like they are a big part of why I keep showing up. It’s my kids and it’s them, because they inspire me and I’ve been told that I inspire some of them. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s nice to hear.

49:50 – Mariana’s Advice For Those Interested in Joining the Tribe

Mariana: Just stop thinking about it and show up. We are so welcoming. From time to time, especially at the beginning of a Challenge, there are a lot of new people, and all the members are always so quick to jump in and make everybody feel welcome. If you have any questions, we’re here for you. The Tribe is a great place to be. I live there.

I know a lot of people don’t like being on social media, or don’t like being a part of groups, because there’s a lot of groups out there that are just crazy. But believe me when I say this is a great one. And I think a big part of being in the Challenge is having that support. I think everybody should have that.

The post “I Found A Sister In The Onnit Tribe”: Mariana Fuentes-Smith’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

So what the hell does the average guy or gal have in common with Brian Butz? Well, as it turns out, much more than you think.

The most impressive thing about the former Onnit Gym coach from Latrobe, PA, isn’t his physique or feats of strength, but rather his evolution from a husky farm boy who grew up playing magic tricks rather than sports and eating bowls of Frosted Flakes^® snowed under in added sugar. Contrary to what his growing Instagram account may lead you to believe, Butz isn’t the poster boy for good genetics and divine favor. Instead, he’s living proof that we all have to start somewhere, and that anyone can leave that place behind if they choose to.

Butz, 29, spoke to us about his life and fitness journey, how he’s trying to single-handedly elevate the coaching profession, and his new workout app, the Mobile Mammoth Level 1.

Onnit: First, we need you to clarify something. We’ve never seen you and Thor in the same place before, so can you conclusively prove that you’re NOT, in fact, a Marvel superhero?

Brian Butz: [Laughs] That has become my nickname among some people. I’ve actually never seen any of those movies, but I get “You look like Chris Hemsworth” from people my age, and “You look like Brad Pitt” from older generations a lot. 

Were you always a physical specimen?

Not at all. My parents had zero concept of nutrition. I drank a lot of soda growing up, and my after-school snack was a giant bowl of Frosted Flakes^® with two strawberry Pop-Tarts^® broken up on top of them and four tablespoons of sugar on top of that. I didn’t have time to play sports because I grew up on a farm, and I was either working on that or working for my dad’s construction company, laying stone and pouring concrete. I started helping him when I was six and worked as a laborer every summer. When I did have time, I was into magic [laughs].

So how did you get into fitness?

I was 14, and my mom asked me one day if I needed a bra because I had such big boobies. She wasn’t kidding.

That’s when I said, “Fuck this.” I had seen commercials for the P90X^® transformation program, and I spent $140 of my own money to get it and started working out. I couldn’t even do a pushup at first. Nowadays, I can deadlift 710 pounds and do full splits, so people like to say, “It’s easy for you to talk about fitness, because you’ve always been like this.” That’s when I tell them, “Eh, not really.” [Laughs]

So I did P90X^® in my room every day. That program ended up being a big influence on my Mobile Mammoth Level 1 program that I offer now. You can do it in your garage. Since the pandemic began, many people have gotten a squat rack or other equipment that fits in a home gym, so, if you’re like I was back in the day, intimidated or uncomfortable going to a gym, you can train in your own room like I did with P90X^®. One of a coach’s jobs is to eliminate barriers to exercise for clients, so creating a program that allows you to train in a place where you’re not self-conscious and you’re free from distractions was important to me, because that’s how I started.

After I lost some weight with P90X^®, I wanted to go out for wrestling, because I knew all the wrestlers in my school were in great shape. I had a gym teacher who was also the wrestling coach. He was a really good guy—didn’t swear, but he was built like a tree, and his training was really diverse. He had us do synchronized swimming as part of our preparation. It turned out that I was pretty terrible at wrestling—I got my ass beat all the time. I’m not a tough guy. But Frank, the coach, supported me anyway. He was the first person who told me, “You can do this.” He told me I could be the first person in my family to go to college. That was a novel thing for me, because, at that time, I had no confidence. I never got much better at wrestling, but I did start believing in myself and pursuing other goals.

At the end of high school, I applied to Indiana University of Pennsylvania and got into their exercise science program. When I told my dad, he said, “That’s awesome. Now how are you going to pay for it?” I had always wanted to go into the Army anyway, so I signed up for an ROTC scholarship. They paid for three years of school, and I went into the Army afterward.

In 2016, I got stationed in Colorado Springs as a platoon leader. I didn’t become a war hero or a bad ass, but, as a First Lieutenant, I had $59 million of equipment under my supervision, and 80 personnel below me. I had to grow up really quickly. The attitude in the Army was, “You’re in charge, so don’t fuck this up.” I had to train people for combat, so I became good at planning, time management, and communication—because that’s how you get people to do things you need them to do when they’re wet, tired, hungry, or pissed off. That really paid off later when I became a trainer.

When did you know you wanted to do fitness for a living?

I married an Army nurse and, when I got out of the military, I moved to San Antonio to be with her. It didn’t work out—we were young and stupid, and some would say I still am [laughs]—but I stayed in Texas. It was really weird because I had an exercise science degree and an Army resume, but I couldn’t find a job anywhere.

I tried to do construction, but I couldn’t get work and ended up sitting on the couch watching The Sopranos. One day, I was working out in Gold’s Gym. I had been training back and was all pumped up, and, out of frustration, I walked into the manager’s office and said, “Hey, man, can I get a job here?” Maybe it was because of the way I looked, but he just said “Sure” right away.

I had some experience as a trainer because I had trained guys in the military—I was responsible for the physical fitness of the platoon. But I went out and got a training certification, and started training people at Gold’s. I really didn’t know what I was doing. The management told me to just go and get clients, so I applied the work ethic I grew up with. I was in the gym 12–14 hours a day, going from treadmill to treadmill talking people up, trying to win clients. I worked up to doing 70 sessions a week, seven days a week, and I became one of the best salesmen at the gym.

Part of my success was due to outworking the competition, but it was also my personality. I was very empathetic to people. My old coach, Frank, used to say that people don’t care how much you know till they know how much you care, and that stuck with me.

How did you find Onnit?

I had heard [Onnit co-founder] Aubrey Marcus on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast when I was in high school. He was talking about an ayahuasca experience that he had had and was actually crying. That made a huge impression on me. 

Remember that I grew up around farmers, construction workers, and wrestlers. I was raised to think that if you were having an issue, the only solution was to raise yourself up by your bootstraps. There wasn’t a lot of space for a man to have feelings. But Aubrey was a guy who was jacked, and hunted fish with a speargun—and was also sensitive enough to cry in public. He showed me that a bad ass can also be in touch with his feelings. So I had known about Onnit for a while, and I had actually been taking Shroom Tech^® SPORT before workouts for years and loved it.

Trainers know that if they get more certifications, they can charge more money, so I said to a bunch of the Gold’s trainers that we should go up to Onnit in Austin and take a cert course. In 2019, we went and did the kettlebell cert, and I left it telling myself that I had to work at Onnit someday. It became the mecca for me. 

What about Onnit impressed you so much?

The kettlebell course was amazing, but there was something about Coach John Wolf [Onnit’s Chief Fitness Officer] that inspired me. He’s a very powerful guy who speaks and teaches well. Like Aubrey, he had a quiet confidence about him and showed that you can be strong and smart and friendly—a balanced person. He owned the room when he taught.

You know, I truly believe that fitness is a vehicle for teaching lessons in life. When I was younger, bodybuilding was very important to me. It was how I dealt with friends who were dying in the military. I worked off a lot of that stress and anger by lifting heavy weights. Then, one day, not long after I went to Onnit the first time, I did a workout where I front squatted 315 for 25 reps. It was awful. I sat down on a bench afterward and thought, “I’m not angry anymore. I want to heal.” Shortly after that, I took Onnit’s Durability certification. Shane Heins [co-creator of Onnit’s fitness education] actually said, “When I saw you come in, I saw this very big guy who looked like a lumberjack, but I could tell that you were just ready to change. I’m excited to see where you take Durability.”

That cert changed my life, and it’s now the basis of everything I do. First of all, Durability made me realize how tight I was. When I tried to do a shinbox sit, my front knee was five inches above the floor. So I stopped lifting entirely for six months and did the Durability moves every day—the mountain climber series, shinboxes, etc. I just did Durability and ran, and that’s it.

Then, in the fall of 2020, [Former Director of Fitness Programming] Juan Leija posted that Onnit Gym was looking for coaches. I messaged him saying I wanted the job, and he invited me to come do a workout with the other coaches. That was part of my job interview. He put us through the ringer, running with an 80-pound sandbag on our shoulders, among other things, but I was in great shape from all the cardio and mobility training. Juan offered me the job, and I moved to Austin.

I worked at Onnit a year, and it was a great experience. I learned a ton. But I recognized that it was getting time for me to step out on my own. There were people waiting a half-year to train with me at the gym, and I felt like I had to find a way to get my training to the masses.

John Wolf had told me that Onnit is a place where coaches come, learn and develop, and then move on to something else. It’s a springboard, not necessarily a destination. So, while it was terrifying to move on, I decided to step away from Onnit so I could develop the Mobile Mammoth plan. 

Where did the idea for Mobile Mammoth training come from?

I had three questions I couldn’t get out of my mind. “What is fitness and why do we need it? What is being offered now in the market and what does it not address? And why is everybody getting hurt?” I thought that if I could answer those, I’d have a training system that would serve more people.

I wanted people to link fitness to life outside the gym. You should know what aspect of your life you want to improve with fitness, and how to train to get there. No one really wants to work out just to get better at working out. Most trainers I see don’t help their clients identify and set smart, specific goals, and I wanted to offer a program that did, no matter who you are. And as for the third question, why is everybody hurt, we need a better model to teach people how to take care of themselves. I’ve trained over 1,000 people now, and I’ve seen that, more than any other factor, what stops them from making progress always comes down to injury. We’re always hearing about female soccer players blowing out their ACLs, and 70% of people who go to physical therapy drop out after the third session—so it falls on trainers to not let them get injured in the first place. 

So, in my system, posture is really important. We work on basic movement skills. I try to educate on simple but important things like how to breathe, how to brace the core. You know, for a long time, I was afraid that clients wouldn’t stay with me if I trained them like that. If I made them do bodyweight squats before barbell squats, focusing on fundamental positions. But I found that when you take the time to explain what you’re doing and why, and you show that it’s because you care about the client, they appreciate it and run with it. And believe me, I can make an exercise hard without adding weight to it. There are all kinds of ways to add intensity to your training, like adding a tempo to your reps, decreasing rest periods, upping the volume, working off one foot rather than two, and so on. 

I have a weird amount of empathy and awareness. I can feel how people are, and I believe that how you show up for people and the attention that you give them is reciprocal. For the hour I’m in the gym with a client, we’re alone. I want them to leave thinking, “Wow, he really paid attention to me.” That can have a huge impact on people, and their fitness. I look at it this way—most people see their doctor maybe once a year, but if you have a trainer, you see them three times a week. We have a big responsibility, and an opportunity to really change lives.

Your mobility now is amazing, especially for a guy your size, but you mentioned that you used to be very inflexible. What do you recommend for people who want to start limbering up?

Spend time in the positions you’re trying to improve and work on owning the end ranges of motion. But also, work on the basics of a healthy lifestyle. Honestly, drinking more water and sleeping eight hours at night had the biggest impact on my mobility. It took me out of that fight-or-flight state, and rehydrated the tissue. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have to do mobility, as basic healthy lifestyle guidelines would cover most of it.

In the Mobile Mammoth app, I put people in positions that challenge them while still letting them do exercises that are familiar and that they enjoy. For instance, there’s biceps curls in the program, but sometimes you’ll do them in different stances. You’re still training biceps, but when you do them in a staggered stance, there’s a balance component, you work hip extension, and you have to be mindful of keeping a neutral pelvis, so mobility and posture are built into the training.

Tell us more about your new app, Mobile Mammoth Level 1

It’s available July 4 on Google Play for Android and iOS for iPhone. You get access to a program for 12 months—three days a week of resistance training and two days of cardio and mobility. You also get what I call Mobility Mammoth Minutes, which are 15-minute routines for when you don’t have time for a full workout. The workouts use equipment that most people have at home—a squat rack, landmine, and dumbbells or kettlebells.

I designed the app to teach people the fundamentals they need to do a hard reset on your fitness, and it will help you answer the question of where you can take your fitness afterward. It’s heavy on education, so it’s not just another program you do and are done with in 30 days. It will feel more like a course you take to learn about training. You can repeat the program again and again, progressing and regressing the exercises as needed.

Download The Mobile Mammoth Level 1 app at  train.themobilemammoth.com, and follow Brian on Instagram, @themobilemammoth.

The post Meet The Mobile Mammoth: Q&A With Brian Butz appeared first on Onnit Academy.

See the video of Shane and Magnus’ interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video. You can stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV), where a new one appears every other week.

Magnus Palmer Show Notes

3:00 – How Magnus Met Onnit

Magnus Palmer: I saw that a friend of mine liked one of Jocko Willink’s posts on social media. When I looked at the post, it showed this weird-looking metal equipment. I said, “What is that?” When I learned it was a steel mace, I felt I had to have it. I ordered one on January 1, 2021, and then I looked on the internet for resources on how to use it. I found a video of [Onnit co-founder] Aubrey Marcus using a mace, and I started following what he did.

I used the mace every day. Unfortunately, the mace I bought was a 15-pounder, which was too heavy, and I hurt my lower back. I wised up, took a step back, ordered a lighter mace, and somehow stumbled onto the Onnit 6 Steel Mace program in February of last year.

When I started following Onnit 6, I understood why my back was hurting. Coach John Wolf tells you in the videos not to arch your back—you want it neutral—and I had been arching like crazy because the 15-pound mace was too heavy, and I didn’t have the foundational knowledge to use it properly.

5:15 – When Lighter Is Better

Shane Heins: A lot of people look at the unconventional Onnit tools and think 10 or 15 pounds is too light, because they compare those weights to what they use on more conventional equipment and exercises. We used to sell a lot more of the 15, 20, and 25-pound maces, but when we started teaching certifications for the steel mace and creating more education for it, people realized they could get more out of lighter weights to start with. Then we saw this huge shift. Suddenly, we were selling out of the 10-pound maces [laughs].

7:55 – Finding His Tribe

Magnus: After a few weeks of Onnit 6 Steel Mace, I bought the Onnit in 30 Move & Groove program. Then I got a suggestion on Facebook to join the Onnit Tribe, and I thought that, maybe if I joined, it would give me a tip or two about using the mace. So I joined the Tribe, thinking I would just ask a question about mace training and get some advice.

Within the first few days I was in the Tribe, I was blown away by the leadership, the diversity, and everyone coming together and having the backs of others. It was so different from other communities I’ve tried. I now consider the Tribe part of my extended family. Even though it’s all online, you get to know people, and these people have their ups and downs. They come from different backgrounds, different parts of the world. These are people you would never get the chance to hang out with otherwise, but you can connect with them in the Tribe because you have something in common.

At the time that I joined, the world was such a turbulent place, but that was never the focus in the Tribe. The focus was on the people in the Tribe. No matter what’s going on outside, you still have people you can connect with and be inspired by.

10:55 – Finding Balance In His Workouts

Magnus: One thing I’ve learned in this journey is that recovery is important. I used to go hard and then harder, and that got me  injured or sick. When I was better, I’d repeat the cycle all over again. But recovery is built into every Onnit program. They have yoga and active recovery sessions, which provides a nice balance to the resistance work. Onnit taught me to use a foam roller, which was pretty torturous at first, but I love it now. 

The Tribe offers these mini-challenges that keep you on task. They’re great for people like me who skip yoga, or complain about it [laughs]. One of them was to do yoga for 14 days. They weren’t all long sessions; it was just a challenge to get you in the habit of doing some, and I did. At the end of the Challenge, I thought I failed, because I only did 11 out of the 14 days. But you, Shane, said it wasn’t a failure. “It’s a success,” you said, “because that’s 11 days more than nothing.” And you were right, because it really opened up my mind to yoga. I tried all different types and found one I really enjoy.

The Tribe pushes you beyond your comfort zone, and it’s helped me rediscover a lot of healthy habits that I forgot along the way. If you’re trying to do it all alone, it’s easy to let those habits fade away.

17:50 – Unity in Diversity

Shane: You mentioned diversity earlier, and one of the pillar principles in our fitness education is Unity In Diversity. We believe that unity, taken to an extreme, can become conformity—a box where everyone lives and has to do everything the same. And diversity, taken to an extreme, can become chaos, because there’s nothing connecting the dots to create structure. So the idea of Unity in Diversity is about how we find the common through-lines in our diversity to connect us all together so that we can move forward together. 

It’s beautiful to hear that in what you’re talking about—that yes, we’re all different people, but we can recognize that we’re all going through something similar. We can draw strength from that.

20:40 – Magnus’ Background

Magnus: I live in Sweden with my future wife, and I have four daughters. I’ll be 48 soon. We have two cats, one dog, and two rabbits living outside. My previous job was actually at IKEA as a senior data engineer. If you go to IKEA’s website, you’ll see things my team and I did. I was at a big data conference in San Francisco in 2019, and I met a lot of people. They joked with me, asking if I had to assemble an IKEA chair for my job interview. It was funny the first few times I heard that, but I don’t know how many times I had to hear that joke [laughs]. I’m a computer geek developer at a small Swedish/American company now. 

I used to do a lot of martial arts when I was younger, and when I saw The Ultimate Fighter TV show in 2008, I said, “I’m only 34, maybe I could have a go at this because I’m not that old.” I started training again, but it takes time to get your body used to that kind of training. But I didn’t know that then, and I got injured. After four and a half years, I looked back on what I was doing and realized that two-thirds of that time was spent with injury and rehab. It didn’t seem worth it, so I quit.

Now, fast forward a few years, and all the sitting I was doing in front of a computer was causing neck problems. The Onnit in 30 Morning Mobility has been a lifesaver for me in that regard.

My daughter wanted to train martial arts, and that got me into judo. Now that I’m doing the Onnit workouts, I noticed that I have fewer headaches than when I trained before, because I’m not as stiff from sitting in front of the computer. 

Onnit has helped my mindset so much too. Now, if I do get injured, instead of thinking about how I can’t do what I want, and not doing anything as a result, I ask myself what I can do instead. That’s proof of a new mindset. The last time I got injured, I managed to do 76 days of stretching in a row.

I also did a lot of planks. I was in plank purgatory! Level 1 planks in the Onnit 6 Steel Mace program are brutal. Every Onnit 6 exercise can be progressed and regressed depending on your ability, and many people want to jump to Level 3 as fast as they can, but sometimes Level 1 is even harder. And if something does feel easy, Coach Wolf shows you how to make it feel hard, and that’s a good skill for life in general.  

There are lots of Onnit principles you can apply to your life. My plan right now is to be doing great when I turn 50. Onnit is one of the resources I use to push me. I just have to be sure not to stop the good things I’m doing and fall back on old habits, which is what I’ve done over the years. When you’re in a good place, it’s easy to let your good habits fade away and forget their benefits.

34:20 – Good Is The Enemy of Great

Shane: I love the saying that good is the enemy of great. Aiming for good enough can be an obstacle to pushing yourself to the next level. The trick is to know when to push yourself and when to take your foot off the pedal a little bit. That’s why our fitness system really is a longevity and performance-focused system. It’s not just longevity for longevity’s sake. It’s about achieving longevity so you can continue to do the things that you love to do at a higher level for as long as you live. That’s how to make age 50 better than 48.

Magnus: A few weeks ago, there was a really emotional moment in the Onnit Tribe Live at Five [a Q&A with the Onnit 6 coaches at 5p.m. CST in the Tribe’s Facebook group]. You said we owe it to ourselves to be the best version of ourselves when tragedy happens. That really hit me profoundly. Sometimes life seems meaningless, so I remember what you said. I will try to be the best version of myself, and the good thing is, doing so is a lifetime quest.

Shane: I appreciate you saying that. ​​I think when you’re feeling paralyzed and asking, “What’s the point? Why try?,” you have to remember that there are folks who do not or will not have the opportunity to change things in their lives. So, in a way, you owe it to them, to yourself, and to the world to do what you can. Outside of whatever else we can’t control or dictate, we can start with ourselves and shift the energy. “Why am I doing this? Because I can, and if I can, then I will. And I will in honor of those who can’t.”

45:00 – Leading By Example 

Magnus: It’s pointless to tell someone, “You should join the Tribe. You should do mobility. You should do yoga.” That doesn’t work. They need to see you and me and say, “I want to have what you have.” Leading by example is the only way to persuade people—because you don’t “persuade” them. You win them over by being you. I want people to look at me and say, “He’s old and he’s big. He shouldn’t be that flexible.” Then they might get inspired to train mobility.

49:40 – The Biggest Improvement in Magnus’ Life, Thanks to the Onnit 6 Programs

Accountability. I actually joined an accountability team in the Tribe for the Onnit in 30 workouts, and being part of that has made me do my decompression sessions late at night, and my Morning Mobility early in the day. These are times when I would normally say, “I don’t have time to do it,” but I realize now that I have time because I want to honor the others in that small group who keep me accountable. That’s a tip for you all out there. If you ever join the Tribe, take the opportunity to connect with others. Sometimes you will inspire them, and sometimes they will inspire you.

The post “We Owe It To Ourselves”: Magnus Palmer’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Cruz, one of our Austin, TX, gym’s earliest members, didn’t know if she could handle Onnit’s workouts, especially coming off an injury, but she had the guts to try… and now we can’t get her to stop! Hear her story, as told to our Chief Fitness Officer, John Wolf, in the newest installment of our ongoing Onnit Stories series—interviews with people who have made inspiring life changes with Onnit’s support. You’ll see the video of John and Jennifer’s interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video.

You can stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV), where a new one appears every other week.

Jennifer Cruz Show Notes

3:10 – Onnit Gym

Jennifer Cruz: I first came to Onnit Gym in May of 2015, and I actually walked in with an injury. I spoke to one of the trainers, and he was like, “It’s going to be just fine. We can work around it.” He gave me the best advice, and it was very different from what I had heard from my doctor. I’ve learned so much about what I’m capable of from training here.

I’m not a good patient. I don’t like to be sick. So if something’s wrong, I just think, “Oh, I’m fine. It’ll be fine.” Onnit’s process taught me to look into the body, apply all the education, and trust the trainers at Onnit, because they have the best knowledge and they have our best interests at heart. John, you’ve always been super supportive with education, and guiding me to respect injury, but also pushing me with my journey. Even when the gym programming is pretty intense, it’s so much fun. When my knees can’t do certain things, there’s always a different answer, so I can continue to progress, and I love that.

10:00 – What Fitness Means to Jennifer

I’m a gym rat. I have been all my life. I used to teach aerobics in the 90s, which is probably why I have knee issues now, but Onnit is extremely unique. When you come here, you’re going to learn a lot about fitness. Fitness is not just how much you can lift, or how far you can go with your endurance. It’s a lifestyle.

You’re going to learn a lot about your body. You’re going to learn a lot about yourself mentally and emotionally too. And the trainers at Onnit are so supportive. They’re OK with you saying, “Maybe I’m just not feeling it today.” They’ll tell you that you can do some other exercise instead, if you need to. You’ll learn the right balance.

12:30 – Getting Over Intimidation in the Gym

Onnit introduced me to a lot of moves that I’d never done before, and they seemed incredibly intimidating at first. Because you think you can’t physically do it, you have this mental block. But I told myself, “You bought the ticket, now you’ve got to take the ride.” You have to honor yourself by showing up.

I remember [former Onnit Gym Director of Fitness Programming] Juan Leija telling me, “Just try.” I’m like, “Juan, that’s maybe a bit heavy,” and he’d say, “Just try it.”

I used to watch Juan train his small groups in the gym and think, “I really want to do that.” Finally, I decided to join the group myself, and after my first session with him, I was like, “How did I do?” He said, “You did fine.” I loved his style. I loved his approach. He’s very stoic, but he’s also very supportive, and there’s just this way about him that makes you want to make him proud.

When you do a hard workout with someone like Juan, it eventually becomes your normal, but it’s not because you get used to that type of intensity. It’s because you’ve grown as a person. You learn that you can handle it, and you go into the next session thinking, “What else can I do?” Just when you think you’ve got it down, Juan makes it even more intense.

He used to run a women-only program, and it was a wonderful experience. The community of women at Onnit is awesome. But I also really enjoy Onnit’s coed classes. I’ll never be as strong or as fast as a man, but just being in class with them gives me that extra motivation to give 100% every time.

I can remember a long time ago, when Juan used to teach a conditioning class on Friday mornings, I showed up one day and it was just me, Tim Kennedy, and another very athletic guy. So I had to keep up with a squad of gorillas. At the end I was hurting, but I was just proud that I was actually able to keep up, and everybody was cheering me on the whole time.

20:00 – The Nobility of Mobility

I learned through Onnit that mobility is just as important—recovery is just as important—as training. That’s made a huge difference for me. You need mobility for longevity, endurance, and strength. And it also teaches you a lot more about your body. When something is off, you’re more aware of it, instead of just thinking, “Oh, I’ll be fine.”

24:20 – John and Jen Discuss How To Measure Progress

John Wolf: I think a lot of us, at times, ask the question, “How do I know I’m improving?” We experience life so subjectively. It’s like, “Well, I kind of feel good today.” Or, “I don’t feel good today. But if I’m improving my fitness, then shouldn’t I feel good more days than not? Or all the time?” That’s an incorrect assessment of what life should be like. I don’t think you can expect there to ever be a time where you’re absent of challenge or hardship. I’ve never gone any significant amount of time without one of those things really rearing its head.

So when we test ourselves in our Onnit workout programs, the tests are designed to highlight what somebody might not have been prepared for. I think that is so rewarding, and I don’t think people are aware that enduring the unexpected is a form of progress. They just measure daily effort and ask themselves if they tried really hard.

Jennifer: I feel that another huge part of progress comes through the Onnit community. The people that we take classes with are so supportive and so nice. I’ve talked about the ton of really great friendships I’ve made with the amazing people there. When we’re struggling in a workout, we come over and we help each other. That makes such a difference.

30:20 – Jen’s Favorite Unconventional Training Tool

The steel mace. It was just the most challenging, and it’s a lot of fun to learn how to control that thing. It really helps with shoulders and your upper body. It helps with mobility. It fires all of these little muscles that are stabilizers. It’s so much fun to use the mace in a flow series. It may not look like you’re doing a lot, but it’s a really good workout.

32:20 – Jen’s Favorite Onnit Supplements 

Hands down, my favorite product is Total GUT HEALTH™. I only take it maybe two or three times a week, but I can feel a difference in my digestion. I’m not as full or bloated if I have a cheat meal. I also absolutely love Shroom Tech^® SPORT. If I’m going to go through a workout, I take two of those bullets. I take Total Nitric Oxide^® as well before workouts, and I do VIRUTech^® for my immune system. Of course, I love the Protein Bites as a snack. My favorite is Cookie Dough.

37:00 – What Makes Onnit Gym Different

The programs are something that you’re not going to find anywhere else. They’re goal-based, not cookie-cutter. The second thing is the community. The people are just awesome. Once you go through a session, you’re going to be friends with the people you trained with. You’re going to support each other and you’re going to look forward to seeing each other in your next session. And if you go MIA, somebody’s going to text you and go, “Are you OK?”

Another thing is that all the coaches have done the same workouts they ask you to do. They practice what they preach.

41:20 – Jen’s Advice For Those Interested in Onnit Gym

Don’t second-guess yourself, because you’re worth it. Once you step through those doors, you have made a decision not to fall, and you are much, much more capable than you think you are. Expect the unexpected, but that’s the exciting part. You’re going to do something new, and you’re going to learn, and you’re going to make friends who are ready to support you.

The post “You Bought The Ticket, Now Take The Ride”: Jennifer Cruz’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

In this interview, Brandon reveals how he survived life on the street, quit drugs cold turkey, and why the Onnit 6 Challenge is really a contest without a competition.

Onnit: Tell us about life before you found Onnit.

Jake Brandon: I joined the Army as soon as I was 18, and still a senior in high school. I felt like serving my country was just something I had to do. The 9/11 attacks happened two days before I graduated basic training, and I wanted to go to Afghanistan, but I had already been assigned to a reserve unit in Omaha.

I was trained to be a helicopter mechanic, but there never seemed to be a helicopter for me to work on, so I went over my head to an officer that I shouldn’t have, asking to get deployed. Instead, I got reprimanded, and was eventually let go from the Army with a less than honorable discharge—just because I broke rank.

That experience left a hole in me somewhere. There was also a death in my family around that time, and it sent me on a downward spiral. Health was not remotely a concern of mine.

I got married, and my wife and I had my first son. Four years later, we had another boy, but I was gaining a lot of weight. I started a job that had me working on wind turbines, and that’s when I started to see the value in keeping myself healthy. I had to climb towers that were 300 feet in the air, and doing that multiple times a day is a workout. That made me start paying attention to what I was eating.

I got the job weighing 268 pounds, but 265 was the weight limit for my position, so I promised that I would lose it. Over the next year and a half, I got down to 215.

Something tells us it’s too early for a happy ending…

You got it. In 2015, my marriage ended in a nasty divorce. My wife took my son away, and he was everything to me. I got depressed, moved back to my hometown, and lost track of fitness again altogether. I was too ashamed, or too prideful, to reach out to family for help, so I ended up staying with a friend of mine—and I use that term lightly. I knew he had done drugs in the past, but I didn’t anticipate it rubbing off on me the way it did. Staying with him in the mindset that I was in at the time made me the perfect victim.

I started doing a lot of hard drugs, and it didn’t take long for me to find myself on the street. I was surviving any way I could, sleeping in the woods or an alley, and occasionally crashing at someone’s place. I made sure that wherever I slept, no one else could see me. I wasn’t proud of where I was at, and I continued using drugs.

In one of the lowest moments of my life, I slept in an abandoned house with no windows. It was the middle of winter. I managed to scrounge up enough money to buy a Marlboro sleeping bag from a pawn shop, so I had that for warmth, and a few blankets, but I woke up in near hypothermia, urinating on myself.

After about a year and a half of being homeless, I had had enough, so I reached out to my brother. He told my mom everything and, even though my mom and I didn’t have a great relationship at that time, she offered me a place to stay. From there, I was able to get myself clean. I never went to rehab—I just stopped using.

The first couple weeks were the hardest. Head to toe pain, body aches, and chills. But I was motivated by my boys. My oldest was four and a half, and my youngest was six months, and I didn’t want them to discover that this was their dad. When my head was clear, I developed a plan to start life over again.

What was the first step?

I started a new career in HVAC. I wanted to do heating and air replacement and repair, and I had to show the court that I was rebuilding my life before I could get joint custody of my boys. The HVAC company had their own apprenticeship program, so I didn’t have to go back to college to get another degree. I could go through the apprenticeship while I was working. Of course, it raised some red flags when I applied, but I told them I would be the best hire they ever had if they took a chance on me. As it turned out, I became their top apprentice for the next three and a half years, and I was made lead of a division in the company.

About a year into the job, I was talking to a coworker, and I found that we shared a love of mixed martial arts. That evolved to us talking about fitness, and he asked if I ever used kettlebells, and showed me the Onnit 6 Kettlebell program. In 2019, I started working out on my own with it. I didn’t want to commit to any Onnit 6 Challenge yet; I just wanted to see if I could do the workouts, because, at that point, my weight was up to 299 pounds.

I was pretty disgusted with myself and I didn’t know if I could handle the workouts. My friend showed me another workout program, RUSHFIT, from Georges St-Pierre, who was one of my favorite UFC fighters. RUSHFIT was more cardio-based, and I used it to help melt some of the fat off and prepare me to do Onnit 6. The more fat I lost, the more comfortable I felt doing the kettlebell exercises I saw from Onnit, and that’s when I decided to join the Onnit Tribe and do my first Onnit 6 Challenge.

By the way, I got joint custody of my kids a year and a half after I started the new job. I want to say that I couldn’t have done it without my Mom, Grandpa, and God in my life.

What were your first impressions of the Tribe?

I joined the Tribe out of curiosity. But I was also skeptical. I had it in my head that it was going to be just fitness enthusiasts with years of experience in there. I thought I wouldn’t fit in. To my shock, the Tribe turned out to be made up of everyday people. No matter your fitness, financial, or social status, you were welcome. But I didn’t open up to the members right away because I felt I didn’t belong. After my drug history, I felt like a fraud being a part of a fitness group.

I kept pretty quiet for the first Challenge I did—the kettlebell one. There was one couple in the Tribe that I did go back and forth with in conversation, and they hounded me about opening up to the whole group. They just said, “You’ll get more out of this if you share more.”

Talking to [Onnit Chief Fitness Officer] John Wolf helped too. He shared details about his past, which included drug use, and that inspired me. Here I was thinking that I was the only one in the Tribe with a story like that, but I wasn’t. The Tribe became the most important people in my life. That’s when I realized that I wasn’t doing another workout, diet, or fitness fad. I was beginning a whole new lifestyle.

How did you like the Onnit 6 workouts?

When I started using the kettlebells, it was awkward at first. There are three tiers of exercises you can choose from when you do the Onnit 6 workouts, and I stayed at Level 1, instead of jumping ahead, and that made all the difference. I have herniated discs in my back from when I was in the service, but the way the program is designed, I was able to build up strength in my back without aggravating it. Now I don’t have low-back pain anymore.

Doing the Onnit and RUSHFIT workouts got my bodyweight down to a healthy 175. I think by now I’ve done every one of the Onnit 6’s. The programs Onnit offers, with or without the Tribe, are on a whole other level from others I’ve tried. Other fitness programs have their benefits, but they’re laser-focused on just one thing—fitness. My whole outlook on fitness now is that it’s a lifestyle. I’m getting my mom and my boys into it too. I want to show them what you can do if you put your mind to it.

My six year-old son is eating more whole grains now. He had been living on white bread with ketchup and eggs, but I prepared meals in front of him so he could see what I’m eating, and he learned to try new foods. I ask him if he wants to try what I’m having. Sometimes he turns his nose up at it, but sometimes he’ll try it. I have him two weekends a month, so I do my best to lead by example.

In spite of all the kind things you’ve said about the Challenges, you took a step back from them for a while. What was that about?

I’m a competitive person, and that can be a bad thing. When I compete for something and don’t win or get noticed, it can have an effect on me. About four Challenges ago, I wanted to stop participating. I was putting everything I had into these contests, but I hadn’t been named as a finalist.

I was getting up at 5 a.m., getting back from work at 4 p.m., and my life was all about Onnit after that. I really didn’t have a life because I was so focused on this new fitness lifestyle. There wasn’t room for anything else anymore but work and fitness. I thought that if I stayed very regimented with training and eating, that that discipline would keep me from going back to drugs.

Once again, the Tribe helped me through it. Tim Sibley said I shouldn’t view the Onnit 6 Challenges as competitions in the sense of one person against another. They’re supposed to be about all of us working together, competing against our former selves. Tim said that you can’t compare one person’s progress to another person’s, “because we’re all on a different point in our journey.” There’s no standard to measure up against.

That helped me to let go a little and have fun with the Challenges again, like I did in the beginning. When it started to feel like fun again, I was able to look at where other people were at and help them do better. I could see myself in some of the other Tribe members and knew what they were struggling with, and that allowed me to support them. 

Interestingly, I ended up being a finalist in that Onnit 6 Challenge, using the Onnit 6 Barbell program, last August. So, looking back at the process, it isn’t just a fitness journey I’m on. It’s been about building my character.

Are you a fan of any supplements?

I’ve taken Total GUT HEALTH™. I’m studying right now for my journeyman license in heating and air, and you can bet that I’ll take Alpha BRAIN^® Black Label before I take that test [laughs]. I also like New MOOD^® for when I’m going to sleep. But for the most part, I do well on what I eat. I used to take supplements for a kick in the butt, but now I find I have the energy from a healthy diet, so I don’t need supplements for that anymore.

What’s your advice to people who may be considering joining an Onnit 6 Challenge, or the Onnit Tribe?

Have fun with fitness. Don’t take it too seriously. Yes, it’s about your health, and you need to be consistent with it, but don’t let it consume you to where you don’t enjoy life. Fitness should be a way to make friends, and you can find a lot of amazing people in the Onnit Tribe on Facebook and on Discord. I got away from Facebook for a while because of their politics, but I’m back on now so I can be in the Tribe. It’s important to me to give back to a place that I got so much support from.

The post “It’s About Building Character”: Q&A With Onnit Tribe Member Jake Brandon appeared first on Onnit Academy.