Our Founder Mode Routines

In episode #2960, Eric Siu and Neil Patel break down their personal health routines inspired by athletes like LeBron James, covering longevity, sleep, nutrition, and fitness—emphasizing tailored strategies and accountability. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES(00:00) LeBron James and Health Investments(01:18) Personal Health Routines(04:34) Longevity Protocols and Sleep(08:03) Diet and Nutrition Strategies(10:05) Exercise and Fitness RegimensPrefer single topic episodes? Head over to our YouTube channel. To suggest a topic, go to https://www.marketingschool.io. For more content from Eric and Neil, check out Eric’s Leveling Up with Eric Siu YouTube channel and Neil’s Neil Patel YouTube channel. Connect with Us:Single Grain << Eric's ad agencyNP Digital << Neil’s ad agencyX @neilpatel, @ericosiuInstagram @neilpatel, @ericosiu Drop Us a Review If You Enjoyed the Episode!

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:39Speaker 00

  Dude, speaking of health, how much do you spend, how do you, how much do you think LeBron James spends on his health per year? I don't know, two, three million bucks? It used to be two million, I think it's down to 1.5 now, but I've been watching his podcast, he's been doing a new one with Steve Nash, because JJ Reddick is the coach of the Lakers now, right? And they're playing tomorrow, day after tomorrow. But, so, there is an episode that LeBron James just did with Steve Nash on LeBron's routine. And the guy's 40 years old and he's still playing at an extremely high, like, MVP level, right, on basketball? And, so I wanted to talk about our founder mode routines. It's not saying we're LeBron James or anything, but he's just sharing that, the fact that, like, I don't know if you used to watch when LeBron James game would end, like, if they lost, he would, like, storm off the court, right? That everyone would be like, "Yeah, he's got no sportsmanship,

• 1:22Speaker 00

  he's really bad." But, what they didn't realize is that he would always storm off the court, whether it's a win or a loss, he would storm off the court, and he'd be drinking his shake, eating, eating his, his food or whatever, and then being in the ice bath, right? So these are all things, like, he watches you sleep and all these things. So, yesterday at that, that YPO dinner, everyone was asking about my sleep stack and all these things. So, I'm like, "Okay, maybe we can go into a little more detail on what our routines are, so we can perform at high levels, like LeBron James, but for a longer time as entrepreneurs."

• 1:52Speaker 01

  The mind's really simple. I only have two routines. One is I use Jacob Everspin, Everspin Life, right? So I've used him for years. Yeah, he's good. It's really good price. So then they run blood work. I think, I don't know through who, I think it's LabCorp. I don't know what it's called. But someone comes to your house, they do blood work. And then they tell me all the things I'm deficient in, and then they prescribe stuff and then I take it and then I move on. Uh, other than that, I get body scans every once in a while, at least once a year.

• 2:22Speaker 00

  MRIs, right? Calcium CT?

• 2:24Speaker 01

  I, I don't know. They make me go through the works on all this stuff. And then I just go and they do it and then they read out the reports and then they say, oh, we'll be quick because of your time. I'm like, no, no, no, you're never quick enough. Just tell me what's wrong. And if there's nothing wrong, we don't need the call. I hate people going over with me on things that are like, oh, this is what's good.

• 2:45Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:46Speaker 01

  It's just a waste of my time.

• 2:46Speaker 00

  Dude, and these calls will take like forty five to sixty minutes. Now I'm like, hey, just give fifteen minutes, please. That's all I.

• 2:52Speaker 01

  Dude, actually I do three. So then even with my dentist the other day, I go to this place called Sunset Dental. They're really cool because they have a TV in the ceiling. So when you're getting your teeth cleaned, like you literally can watch Netflix or whatever you want. It's not the cheapest, but they're really amazing at what they do. So he has me spit in a tube and then they run tests and they see if your numbers improve. The test for everything, bad breath, tooth decay, gum decay, bacteria in your mouth, is it good bacteria? And how are you doing ratios when they compare to everyone else? The same thing. And he knows me really well at this point. And he's just like, all right, let me just go with bad. And I was like, cool. He's like, everything's good. You should just take this probiotic. It'll help improve certain good bacterias for your mouth and your gut.

• 3:35Speaker 01

  Okay, sounds good. I'll start taking probiotic. He's like, take this one. He's like, I'll email you a link. I was like, cool. Just saved forty minutes on the phone. He's like, I have time if you want more questions. Like, no, I don't want more questions. Just tell me what I need to fix. And he's like, you're doing everything else really well. And they go over things like, are your, is the tongue cleaner using metal or plastic? I'm like, metal. He's like, cool. All right. So those are two things I do. And the third one I do is I don't do this. The wife does this. We have a doctor. I wouldn't say it's on call, but it's concierge doctor. I don't know what it's called, but just calls whenever we need, whoever we need to go see. It just happens whenever we need it done.

• 4:14Speaker 01

  Kids always get hurt. There's some issues. It's just easier versus, oh, I gotta book appointment and then see him days later and then yeah. But I would say those are the only real three things I do. If I add, add in a fourth, I've had a personal trainer for years, but I don't train hard. To give you a great example, I weigh 130 ish pounds. You know, my bicep curls, if I'm in the mood and I really want to work out will be 30 pounds. If I'm not in the mood like today, 25 pounds. And he always tells me, if you eat better, eat more protein, I can make you bulked up and jacked. And I'm like, I don't care. If I bench press, I don't ever do more than a 45 plate on each side.

• 4:56Speaker 01

  Why? Because I don't care to be ripped. I just want my muscle mass to stay decent enough and my bones to stay strong enough. That way, when I'm 60, 70, 80 years old, I can still be active.

• 5:08Speaker 00

  All right. I'm going to give you my founder mode longevity routine. Neil just gave you. So you have the Neil Patel longevity protocol and you have the Eric Sue longevity protocol.

• 5:17Speaker 01

  Wait, before Eric gives his, I recommend everyone taking notes here or at least saving this on Eric's because he does way more than I do and his is more data backed than mine is. So I recommend you actually listen to this, save it, bookmark it, whatever you want.

• 5:32Speaker 00

  Thank you. The irony is you love data. So this is a situation where I give you here's like,

• 5:37Speaker 01

  I don't do.

• 5:38Speaker 00

  Okay. So, okay. So here's the, here's the founder longevity protocol and we'll start with sleep first. So if you are fortunate enough to have access to a sauna or cold plunge, I go 20 minutes in the sauna. Then I go four minutes in the cold plunge. The cold plunge is around 40 to 45 degrees usually. And then I'll go back into the sauna because it's cold by this point. So I'll go back for about five minutes. And then that will be my protocol. What that does for me is my HRV, my heart rate variability skyrockets like over a hundred or so. And then my resting heart rate will drop to about 39 and usually my HRV, if I'm not doing this. That like a sauna cold plunge, maybe it's like seventy, eighty, which is still decent. Assume I'm not super stressed or anything. And then usually my resting heart rate might be like forty five to forty seven or something like that.

• 6:23Speaker 00

  But when I, when I add the sauna cold plunge, it makes a massive difference. So those two things are good. And plus, I'm not even gonna talk about all the benefits. There are a lot of benefits to, to using these two things. This is known as contrast therapy. Now, now I'm gonna go into my sleep stack. So the, the supplements I actually take. One thing I take is called glycine. And glycine helps me basically lower my body temperature. There's a lot of other benefits to these things, but I take fifteen hundred milligrams of that. I take four hundred milligrams of L-theanine. Just for context here, L-theanine is a compound found in your green tea. And that helps calm you. But when you drink a green tea, you might only have like twenty to thirty milligrams in it. So four hundred milligrams is a lot, at least, you know, comparatively, comparatively. And then I take magnesium. So you can take glycinate is usually what people take for sleep.

• 7:08Speaker 00

  I've switched over to L-3-08 because Everspan Life said, hey, try L-3-08 instead. So I take a thousand milligrams of that magnesium helps with their bones and a bunch of other things too. And most of us are actually magnesium deficient. And then there's two more here before I move on from the sleep stack. Then I'm happy to pause for a second. Um, I take Pharmagaba, that's two hundred fifty milligrams. And I also take apigenin, that's one hundred milligrams. And apigenin is like the flowers that you find in chamomile tea. So it calms you as well. So a lot of stuff to calm me and probably all in with these. It's, I don't know, it's like ten, twelve pills, like two hours before bed. And then if I wanna get really like next level, then I have this Japanese, um, soba tea I buy from Kettle, which is, it tastes amazing. It's this, the, the buckwheat tea, it tastes so good. And then I add Himalayan pink salt to it.

• 7:52Speaker 00

  And then I have Manuka honey, which actually helps you. It's like special honey from New Zealand. You, you, you've heard about it, right?

• 8:00Speaker 01

  We have.

• 8:00Speaker 00

  Yeah. So that's what I have for my, my sleep stack.

• 8:03Speaker 01

  So I'll have one question for you. I'm still confused on the dry sauna cold plunge. Do you do that before you go to sleep?

• 8:10Speaker 00

  Yes, I do that before, ideally before. Um, but even if I do it in mornings, like sometimes you see me post to Instagram, I'm there at five AM in the morning. It's, it still makes a massive difference.

• 8:20Speaker 01

  It makes you sleep better.

• 8:21Speaker 00

  It makes me sleep better and plus I feel so good. I have a body high for the next three to four hours. It's like taking a drug in the morning. It's like cheating.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  Well, I was confused because I've seen your cold plunges or whatever on Instagram in the morning. So I was like, what are you talking about?

• 8:33Speaker 00

  I do it in the evenings too.

• 8:35Speaker 01

  Oh, okay. Yeah. Now go through the rest of the day.

• 8:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, okay. And then, so that's, that's, sleep is, I mean, this, anybody can do this, right? Everybody, like, sleep is a cool thing now, right? Like, don't drink alcohol and all that, right? And so I know when I, when I have good sleep, I perform way better. And then I'll, I'll just go through the rest really quickly here. The, the rest is pretty simple. So I use a product called My Body Tutor. And then I enter in my, my diet every single day. And then so there'll be a coach saying, yeah, you're, you're, you're, you're spot on, like, good job, right? Like, oh, you, it looks like you're a little over here. Oh, it looks like we got a little ambitious today, like when I start eating cookies and stuff. So he'll, he'll hold me, there, there is something to be said about that accountability. It's not cheap. It's like 299 bucks a month. But I think if I cancel it, I think I'll start to just, like, go off the rails a little bit.

• 9:17Speaker 00

  But he limits me to 1900 calories a day. Um, cause I do, I'm like, I, I want to be like, continue to be in shape, right? And I want, I want to be really in shape. And then, so I start a line around 1900 calories a day. Your mileage may vary. And then other than that, I think going with diet, you and I both eat pretty cleanly. I think it's, I mostly eat Sweet Green and I mostly eat this organic salad place nearby my office. Um, and other than that, it's Erawan. So it's, it's Erawan, Sweet Green, the organic salad place. Maybe if I'm ambitious, Taco Tuesday at Tokaya. Um, and then I eat Ding Taifeng on Sundays with my parents. Frictionless Growth Marketing hosted by Sonya Thompson is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.

• 9:56Speaker 00

  Frictionless Growth Marketing hosted by Sonya Thompson shows how modern brands grow by removing the friction in their marketing and customer experience that pushes customers away every single day, often without leaders even realizing it. Each episode delivers practical insights, real brand examples, and conversations with marketing leaders, showing brands how to win with the new rules of growth, identity-driven marketing, cultural relevance, and frictionless customer experiences. Listen to Frictionless Growth Marketing wherever you get your podcasts.

• 10:25Speaker 01

  Does the guy have good deals on Taco Tuesday?

• 10:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, Taco Tuesday, dude. It's like $2, $3 per taco. Okay, and then the final thing on here is you and I both use Everspan Life and then I lift four times a week at the gym. And then when I lift, I'm going on a zone two walk right after for 30 minutes. Uh, three miles per hour, 12% incline. So that's a zone two walk. And then once a week, I'll do a Norwegian four by four, which is a zone five workout. And that's to get my VO2 max higher because if you have a high VO2 max. If you have a top 2% VO2 max, you have a 400%. Like multiple on like how much longer you live versus someone that's like top 25%. Um, so that's why I optimized for that. And the reason I try to lift heavier is because the more you lift, actually it helps with your longevity. So I just want to live long.

• 11:08Speaker 00

  Live longer, which is why I tried to lift a little heavier. And then the other thing I'll say is I'll. I'll basically Mondays through Wednesdays, I'm writing on my Peloton and then the other days is just the lift and the zone two. And then that's basically it. And we try to eat clean and we try to calorie limit and that's it. You know, I'll give you guys a bonus here. Alex Ramosi, so when I was eating with him and Leila. The, what his order. So we're at the Beverly Hills Hotel, right? And this is not even on the menu. He's like, yeah, four chicken breasts. And that's, I was like, that's it. I was like, that's it? But four chicken breasts is a ton of protein, right? So I try to eat my body weight in protein, but. If you want to eat your body weight in protein, you have to do the four chicken breast thing. Like, because each chicken breast is like 20 to 30 grams of protein. It's a lot. Yeah.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  I'm probably at like 50 grams of protein a day.

• 11:53Speaker 00

  I'm, I'm probably only at 70, 80% of my weight. And, and you're probably like a little less than that.

• 11:58Speaker 01

  No, I'm not even.

• 11:59Speaker 00

  You're a third, you're a third. Oh, you're not even, yeah. So, anyway.

• 12:03Speaker 01

  But yeah, and going back to lifting heavy. My trainer and I, I lift weights around five times a week, some days, sometimes six. My trainer used to be a bodybuilder. And he's much older now. I think 55 ish. He's about to turn 56. He takes these supplements because of like pain from all like he lifts like heavy, heavy like professional bodybuilder. And every time he tells me, let's get you jacked. And I'm like, look at you. I'm like, you're older and you're telling me you're taking medicine to not be in pain. Because of all the heavy lifting you did in the past. I'm like, I don't, I don't need that.

• 12:38Speaker 00

  I don't think you should get jacked though. I mean, I just grock this. So studies show consistent strength training correlates with 20, 30% lower risk of all cause mortality. And then compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, which I think you all do.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  I do squats.

• 12:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:50Speaker 01

  But like even bench.

• 12:51Speaker 00

  But seven, at 70 to 85% of your one rep max.

• 12:55Speaker 01

  So like for me, let's say if I squat, benching is actually the same too.

• 13:00Speaker 00

  You squat a lot, right? I think you can squat.

• 13:01Speaker 01

  I squat multiple times a week.

• 13:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:03Speaker 01

  But my squat is assisted bar. It's like on something that goes up and down.

• 13:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:07Speaker 01

  For like safety and we don't really use it for safety, but I only put 45 pound plates on each side. And then my bench, there's no safety net on there. So it's just a bar and 45 on each side. I don't know what that is. 90 pounds. What does a bar weigh? 10 pounds? 45? So what is that? 90 plus 20, 125? 135. That's my weight. I think that's good enough. What am I going to try to do? Lift 200 pounds and get jacked and not fit into t-shirts and have to spend more money?

• 13:34Speaker 00

  I think the big thing for both of us is we're not doctors here, guys. I think, well, so who I listen to are doctors like Dr. Peter Tia, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Dr. Mark Hyman, um, Dr. Rhonda Patrick. Like I, they all have podcasts now, right? And they all have like a thing that are their shtick. So Peter Tia is the one that says emphasizing lifting heavy weights as part of strength, strength training will enhance lifespan and health span. So I don't think you need to lift, this is my unsolicited advice or my thoughts. I don't think it's necessarily lifting to get jacked. I think it's just lifting heavier weights. Um, it's, it's probably in between because it, it, there's a lot of data and I'll show you the data later if you care. Um, that shows that you will live longer, but you have to lift heavier.

• 14:12Speaker 01

  Yes. And my problem is, is when I lift heavier, I, I gain strength and muscle when I eat a ton of protein. So there was a period for a month and a half where I ate a pound of protein. For every, for, not pound, is it gram or whatever it's called, right? For each pound I weigh and I started putting on muscle quicker and I started getting stronger. The moment I stopped eating that amount of protein. Things started to get harder at the gym. And for me, I just can't consume that much protein and I don't care to. It's just.

• 14:42Speaker 00

  I think you'll change your mind eventually because I know you want to live longer. But you're going to have to lift a little more. But anyway, guys, I hope you guys enjoyed that session. That is it for today. We're going to be recording in Miami. Using my DJ Osmo next week, Neil and I will be. And we'll see you in Miami.