313. The Passive Biohack for People Who Sit All Day - Brent Yates

Many weighted vests hang the load on your shoulders and leave your back to take the hit. Gary Brecka sits down with Brent Yates, author of The Gravity of Up, to break down how weight, compression and heat work together, why your tendons, ligaments and fascia need time to adapt, and where to start (3 to 5% of body weight). Plus the progressive load problem Brent is working on for military recruits. Don't guess, test. Click here to join Gary’s VIP Community: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Connect with Brent Yates Website: https://bit.ly/3UdUpez YouTube: https://bit.ly/4hN5NFY Instagram: https://bit.ly/3TJCE6A Facebook: https://bit.ly/4dp5sYR TikTok: https://bit.ly/4yEa1Ht X: https://bit.ly/4dqQ8uM LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4AQGLP2 Thank you to our partners A-GAME: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: http://bit.ly/4kek1ij AION: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD AIRES: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: https://bit.ly/4a3Duze BAJA GOLD: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa BODYHEALTH: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsVBREW: THE ULTIMATE COFFEE: https://bit.ly/4elHM82 COLD LIFE: THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp CYMBIOTIKA: “BRECKACYM30” FOR 30% OFF: https://bit.ly/4tjyluP GENETIC METHYLATION TEST (UK ONLY): https://bit.ly/48QJJrk GENETIC TEST (USA ONLY): https://bit.ly/3Yg1Uk9 GOPUFF: GET YOUR FAVORITE SNACK!: https://bit.ly/4obIFDC H2TABS: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg HEALF: 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S PEPTUAL: “TUH10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4mKxgcn SNOOZE: LET’S GET TO SLEEP!: https://bit.ly/4pt1T6V WHOOP: JOIN & GET 1 FREE MONTH!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW Watch the “Ultimate Human Podcast” every Tuesday & Thursday at 9AM EST: YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RQftU0 Connect with Gary Brecka Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8fo X: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4hH7Ri2 Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps 00:23 - Introduction: Weighted Lifestyle and Sitting Risk 03:00 - Brent's Torn Supraspinatus and Lost Muscle 05:01 - Writing The Gravity of Up 08:08 - The Trainer Who Rebuilt Him at 47 10:28 - Why Standard Weighted Vests Hurt 13:04 - Weight, Compression and Heat Explained 16:10 - Women and Weighted Vests 17:11 - Starting at 3 to 5% of Body Weight 19:23 - Oxygen, Blood Flow and Passive Biohacks 21:55 - Military Recruits and Progressive Load 29:12 - Building Tendons, Ligaments and Fascia 30:55 - Meditation and Clearing Your Mind 35:24 - What It Means to Be an Ultimate Human 36:17 - Upgrading Gary to an 8.5 Pound Vest 38:48 - Gary on Authenticity and Intention Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice. It is not intended for diagnosing or treating any health condition. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before making health or wellness decisions. Gary Brecka is the owner of Ultimate Human, LLC which operates The Ultimate Human podcast and promotes certain third-party products used by Gary Brecka in his personal health and wellness protocols and daily life and for which Ultimate Human LLC and / or Gary Brecka directly or indirectly holds an economic interest or receives compensation. Accordingly, statements made by Gary Brecka and others (including on The Ultimate Human podcast) may be considered promotional in nature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Eighteen years ago, I lost my health. I was self-injured. My body had broken down. At the same time, I went, all right, how am I going to fix my body? For once I decided it was weight, get my body back faster. I needed a tool. And so I ordered every weight vest on the market and it not only hurt my body, but it compromised my movement.

• 0:14Speaker 01

  The way that people think about rucking and weight as being something that can be incorporated into their lifestyle, rather than just something they go do at the gym, I think is a reframing for me that's had very positive consequences.

• 0:25Speaker 00

  Especially as you age, like you have to look for every tool you can find. Father time is staring you right smack in the face. And when I invented it at 62, I gotta have more tools, man. And I thought, what if I could tap into my metabolism every day, tone a little bit all day and look good doing it?

• 0:40Speaker 01

  There's science around compression. There's science around weighted exercise, improving metabolism, raising body temperature and increasing the rate for this adaptive response.

• 0:50Speaker 00

  Most weighted vests give you weight because of the compression, heat and the load. We give you a transformational body.

• 0:55Speaker 01

  Someone listening to this podcast, new to weight, new to rucking, sort of piqued their interest about a lightly weighted lifestyle. Where do they start?

• 1:02Speaker 00

  I think the biggest thing is.

• 1:16Speaker 01

  Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brecka, where we go down the road of everything, anti-aging, biohacking, longevity and everything in between. And today's guest, not only a New York, or a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, he is a partner of mine and he is a partner of mine in a project that I think could change the landscape of how you walk through your daily life. You know, as a mortality scientist, we knew a long time ago that sedentary lifestyle was the leading cause of all-cause mortality. Today, sitting is the new smoking. And I've asked Brent to come on and talk about his invention. He's a serial entrepreneur. He's an amazing partner and what we have to talk about today may reframe the way you think about how you go through your daily life.

• 2:02Speaker 01

  Welcome to the podcast, Brent Yates.

• 2:03Speaker 00

  Brother, pleasure to be here.

• 2:05Speaker 01

  It's a pleasure to have you on.

• 2:06Speaker 00

  To be my partner.

• 2:09Speaker 00

  You're looking good too, brother, by the way.

• 2:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, thank you.

• 2:11Speaker 00

  What have you been doing?

• 2:14Speaker 00

  Every day, right?

• 2:16Speaker 01

  Weight, weight vest. I mean, if you follow me on social media, you see me on stage talks, podcasts, lectures, interviews, and people see me in the airport, you're like, you really wear that thing every day? And I do. I really do wear it every day. And before we get into the whole discussion today about lifestyle and how weight and compression, I want to get into some of the science behind it. I do just want to put right out there upfront, what was my trigger, you know, for partnering with you? Like I say, we knew the data on sedentary lifestyle was not good. We've engineered movement out of our lives, you know, walkways, escalators, elevators, moving walkways, cars, everything. We know that sedentary lifestyle is the leading cause of all-cause mortality,

• 3:02Speaker 01

  but some people just don't have time to go to the gym.

• 3:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:04Speaker 01

  And your philosophy of a lightly weighted lifestyle really set off a light bulb for me. And I've been an ION advocate ever since and it was an easy transition for me. And if you look back, my videos and podcasts and lectures over the last few years, I'm always in this thing. So I love it. But there is a common theme that runs through nearly everybody that sits in that chair. And they may or may not be the most credentialed, but the most passionate, purpose-driven and powerful people that I've ever met have solved some kind of problem in their life. And I'd love to know the backstory, you know, what led to this. I've never asked you about that.

• 3:48Speaker 01

  And, you know, what was the problem that you solved in your life? I know you're on your way to a great golf career.

• 3:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, I was, I was.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  You're a big guy for a golfer, dude.

• 3:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I solved that problem, but truly the backstory would be like 18 years ago, I lost my health. And I think when I built up my health through a lot of people coming into my life, which we'll get to,

• 4:12Speaker 00

  at 60 years old, when you mentioned like, hey, you had a golf career going on. I was doing long drive golf ball contests professionally.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  Oh, professionally?

• 4:19Speaker 00

  And tore my supraspinatus. And so that kind of, that kind of, yeah, that kind of ended that. But it was the time after and it was in COVID. And so the protocols to get PT, all that stuff, I couldn't get in. I knew I had a problem, but I had to keep going. So in one swing, I'd just gotten a 48-inch driver. So a little more torque with that. But I really, I found myself trying to optimize, right? Distances like, like you, it's, it's acquired, like the stronger you get, the more torque you have, the better shape you're in. And I found myself in the look back, working out wrong with a TRX bar. Like I got it up here, my shoulders overwhelmed, my core overwhelmed my shoulders.

• 5:03Speaker 00

  And I think that was part of my pitfall. But ultimately tore my supraspinatus, four to five months trying to get surgery in COVID. As I mentioned, the protocols were pretty messed up. And I immediately lost my body that I had worked 13 years to get at age 60, because I'd lost my body at 47. And so here I am watching my body degenerate in front of the mirror, which, you know, once you lose it and you get it back, like that's all I worried about.

• 5:32Speaker 01

  You don't want to lose it again.

• 5:33Speaker 00

  I wanted to be the very best I could be. And so when I saw that going on, first I wrote the book. At the same time, I went, all right, how am I going to fix my body?

• 5:41Speaker 01

  Yeah. Tell me about the Wall Street Journal bestselling book, The Gravity of Up. Was this, this injury, this, this recovery journey you were on, is that the inspiration behind the book?

• 5:53Speaker 00

  No, sir.

• 5:54Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 5:55Speaker 00

  No, sir. And so Christina, who you've met, my wife, 10 years, I've known her 11 years. We got married almost 10 years, yes. One of the reasons I stay here today. Dude, you know, when I pray, it's like, it's like, I know I have purpose because of who he put beside me. And so I had that conversation with her the other day and I'm like, baby, like, do you know? Do you understand what power that gives me and a feeling of gratitude that you're beside me?

• 6:21Speaker 01

  That's amazing.

• 6:21Speaker 00

  Anyway, but what was the question now?

• 6:25Speaker 01

  What was the inspiration behind the book? Because lots of people write books, not a lot of people write number one telling Wall Street Journal bestsellers.

• 6:32Speaker 00

  Christina met me 11 years ago. My transformation happened almost 19 years ago. And when she met me, I'd already transformed into who you see today. The guy that thrives and wants to be better and looking for more and always knowing the right people around him are going to get us where we want to go. All those things that I hope we get to cover. But ultimately, when, when that occurred, she, when she met me, she'd heard the stories. And then we were a year together. She started meeting the people. And then after we got married, really meeting the pastors and the life coaches and the trainers that finally she got to meet. And understanding that the transformation by those people that I'd told stories about, but now they got to tell their stories to her.

• 7:14Speaker 00

  And so for about five years, she kept saying, you, you need to document this in a book. And I kept saying, I kind of get it, but I don't want to take the time. I don't want to really reveal why, how I lost my health. You know, that's, that's not an easy thing to do. And I just didn't want to take the time. But then COVID hit and can I tell you why I did it right then and there? When COVID hit, I tore my shoulder. All that was occurring at the same time. And I kept whining to God, like I've transformed my life. I'm doing all the right things. And why did you tear my shoulder? And so I got back two nights in a row when I'm whining, what are you going to do now? And that second night I got that, I knew it was time to share my story.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 7:56Speaker 00

  And so I asked Christina, go get some big notebooks. And in a sling, I'm writing over the pool table, my book. So three months later, we got it to an editor, we brought in a ghostwriter and we brought it to life.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  That's great. What would the audience, what would be the main topics that your audience would get from the book?

• 8:13Speaker 00

  Yeah. So the main topics are obviously my, my transformation. But the bigger thing are the people that come, that came, that I wasn't looking for. Trainer comes, a life coach comes, a church comes, community comes for me. And it really, I think, we were having a conversation earlier and it's, and it's, my story is don't, don't know, you don't know that's coming, you don't know what you need. You have to open your mind to, I need something, but you don't really know what it is, right? Or I went and got it.

• 8:42Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:43Speaker 00

  When I'm breaking down, when my body's leaving me, I was going through a divorce, a lawsuit. It was right in the financial crisis. A bank had taken my note on a new project I had started in Alabama and I'm going through a divorce. I'm losing.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  And you're injured.

• 8:58Speaker 00

  And I'm injured and I'm losing community.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:00Speaker 00

  I'm, this, no, this was at 47. I was self-injured. My body had broken down, convulsions, MRSA. I was on a crutch and when the trainer found me, it was 47 years old. And first was a trainer in Arizona finds me. There's more to it, but I'm looking up at a mountain. I'm looking at Campbell Back Mountain, never been up, but I'm on a crutch. And a trainer that worked at the Mona Lucia Spa puts his arm around me. I'm kind of on his level. His gym's on the second level and I'm looking at this mountain in awe. Have you been to Paradise Valley?

• 9:30Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah. Beautiful.

• 9:31Speaker 00

  And I'm looking at it in awe, not never thinking about climbing that. That's, that's, that's way beyond me. And he goes, and I'm on a crutch and he goes, puts his arm around me, goes, how you doing? And this beautiful spirit that he had. And the ego kind of kicked in a little bit, but I go, well, you can kind of see, he goes, you're going to work out? And I go, how am I going to work out? He goes, come see me tomorrow. A year and a half later, I'd lived with him for over eight months. He poured into me everything that he ate, everything that he thought, how he trained. This guy was like superhuman. He finds me. Nobody had met it. No one like him today, still to date, like this guy. When you walk into a restaurant with this guy, like he just floated, he loved on everybody.

• 10:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:13Speaker 00

  Nobody even knew I existed.

• 10:14Speaker 01

  Serendipity.

• 10:15Speaker 00

  And I thought I had a little bit going on, but nobody, nobody saw me. He was so beautiful and powerful.

• 10:21Speaker 01

  That's amazing.

• 10:22Speaker 00

  And he tapped into me. Nobody else that I see him.

• 10:24Speaker 01

  That's the power of community, the power of connection. So at some point you, you transitioned to address another major problem that I think you saw in the health industry.

• 10:34Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 10:36Speaker 01

  And, you know, created what I'm wearing right now, which I think is amazing. You made weighted lifestyle functional and fashionable.

• 10:48Speaker 00

  Pretty well got it.

• 10:49Speaker 01

  I do hate to say it, it wasn't fashionable. I don't know. If I couldn't get away with wearing it in public, I don't know if I'd wear it.

• 10:55Speaker 00

  Right.

• 10:56Speaker 01

  Um, you know, and it, but I want to go into the genesis of that. But more importantly, because uh, my, my audience, you know, has always wanted to know the why.

• 11:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:05Speaker 01

  I want to talk about the science behind compression, behind weight, um, how the body responds, the adaptive response, hormetic stress. I want to go into the whys.

• 11:16Speaker 01

  So how did, how did the journey begin to what's now ION?

• 11:21Speaker 00

  Yeah. And so after the surgery, I'm writing the book, my body had lost 10 pounds of muscle and it went right here. And so again, working for 13 years at that point, to get the body that I had lost, that I wasn't willing to give up even through a surgery. Somehow something triggered, I'd never worn weight before. But I was triggered that I was my biggest when I was doing construction, carrying my tools. You look at the Roman soldiers, like, like they carried their armor. All those things were in my mind, like, is there something to that? And when I saw people in the gym doing that.

• 11:57Speaker 01

  I mean, Rocky had been around, right?

• 11:58Speaker 00

  Rocky had been around, but I wasn't around it. I, I've seen it a couple of times, but I kind of went, why would you work harder? You're already doing something really hard. Why would you make it harder?

• 12:07Speaker 01

  Right.

• 12:07Speaker 00

  And so, uh, with that in mind, I also knew about neoprene. I knew about the sleeves and I'd used them on the planes for the blood flow. And so the first thing I did though, as I ordered every weight vest on the market. Once I decided it was weight could get me there faster, get my body back faster. I needed a tool. Wasn't sure it was that tool. I ordered every weight vest on the market and it hurt my body, basically.

• 12:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:30Speaker 00

  And, and it looked terrible.

• 12:32Speaker 01

  Right.

• 12:33Speaker 00

  The ones I ordered, I had bean bags shoved in it and uh, I would not wear it out of my gym.

• 12:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. I, I, I've been rucking for a while. Um, and before I rocked with a properly fitted weight vest, it did used to really always bother my low back and it always bothered my shoulders because the weight kind of just hangs on you. Um, I had the kind that had the plates in the front and they would kind of slap against you. There was no jogging in it.

• 12:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:55Speaker 01

  There's only rucking, but um, it would kind of slap against you in the front, slap against you in the back. And there was just kind of bounce up and down on your shoulders. And so I always felt worse come, coming back from something like that. Like I'd done something bad to my body, not just stressed my body.

• 13:11Speaker 00

  Absolutely. Yeah. And so that's what I found out real, real fast is it not only hurt my body, but it, it compromised my movement. And so vertically it hurt. I'd go this way, the vest would go that way. You could really cinch them up, but then that hurt. And so I was like, all right, how am I going to fix this? And so, um.

• 13:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, yeah. So the combination of having a fabric that creates um, compression.

• 13:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:34Speaker 01

  And it's the distribution of weight, which was the big thing for me. I mean, it's almost like the same way that your body would put on the weight if you just gained the weight.

• 13:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  Right? I mean, it's a very natural way of layering weight on, on your body instead of just piling it onto your shoulders. But what is the science, what is the data say behind uh, compression and, and weight?

• 13:56Speaker 00

  Yeah. I think for us, it's multimodality. And, and that's how I got my patent was the compression first. To me, more blood, blood flow, more oxygen, right? We're compressing our lungs. We have to work a little harder. And I want to go into the optimal weighting part. And that's what you said at the beginning was the lightweight, the right weight. I call it the optimal weight. So you got the compression, which is more blood flow to the tissues. Then you've got the heat, which is thermogenic. It's made out of neoprene. The neoprene was the key to keep it to my body where it didn't hurt my shoulders. I just had a shoulder surgery and that hurt. I, I couldn't wear any other vest for more than two minutes before it hurt my body. And so, and then you got the fractional load. So your entire body, 40% of your upper body is touched by weight.

• 14:40Speaker 00

  So you're engaging your inner core, you're engaging your obliques, your back, your chest. It's all working with you versus maybe a typical weighted vest.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  Right. Which is just your shoulders.

• 14:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:51Speaker 01

  Just weight hanging down on you.

• 14:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:53Speaker 01

  So, but there, there's, there's science around compression. There's science around um, uh, weighted exercise, you know, uh, improving metabolism, raising body temperature and increasing the rate for this adaptive response. Because you know, my audience is very familiar with hormesis, right? You apply stress and the body strengthens in response. That's the whole concept of exercise. Ter muscle, cause like larger. But where, where I think most people don't think about, like, they think about weight as an event. Right? I go to the gym, I lift weight or I put on a ruck and I go for a ruck walk. They don't think about a weighted lifestyle.

• 15:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:33Speaker 01

  And conceptually, I know you didn't just design this boardroom vest out of the gate. Where did that come from?

• 15:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. So golfer, I, I kind of thought of it and saw it and I thought, man, what if I could, what if I could tap into my metabolism every day? Tone a little bit all day and look good doing it. And I was like, okay, what, what benefits would that have? Could it be an off day? Yes. Could it be when I don't have a chance to work out? Yes. Could it be all the time? Yes. But always wanting more, a little bit more, especially as you age. Like you have to look for every tool you can find. Father time is staring you right smack in the face.

• 16:11Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 16:11Speaker 00

  And so at 65, and when I invented it at 62 going, I gotta have more tools, man. I gotta step the Gary Brekis of the world. And so, you know, that was, I want to stay in the game. Yeah.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, the, you, you want to stay in the game, but the, you know, it, it, it's an attractive vest. I mean, what, what are, for someone that's had so many of these out there in the market,

• 16:36Speaker 01

  what is number one, a common misconception about weight, um, especially around women? And number two, what are some of these stories that you get back? Like the testimonials that you get back from people who have made this a part of their lifestyle? I mean, I know what my own testimonial is.

• 16:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, sure.

• 16:52Speaker 01

  Um, and it's the reason why I'm always have it on.

• 16:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:55Speaker 01

  Yeah. Even, even when I just do podcasts, because I just, I, I don't take it off.

• 16:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:00Speaker 01

  But what, what are some of those that surprised you?

• 17:03Speaker 00

  Yeah. Well, I think the biggest thing is most people thought they looked terrible and they hurt their bodies and/or they thought it was just for rucking. And because the military, you know, that started the rucking. When you think of rucking, you think of the military. Is it really part of our daily lives?

• 17:19Speaker 01

  I also don't think of it very much as a female sport. Like when I told my wife about wearing a weighted vest, she was not for it at all initially.

• 17:25Speaker 00

  Yeah. Like, like I would say less than half of 1% of women have ever, ever worn weight. It's probably a much smaller number than that. But when you, when some of them have, the, the bodybuilders had worn weight, right? And so there was a misconception, oh, we're going to get big. That's what the bodybuilders were. Not true. And so I think if it, if it done right and incorporated into cardiovascular and movement, it's, you know, it's all about what you eat and how you, how you train in your body as a whole, whether you're going to get big. But for the most part, women are not going to get big. They're going to get lean.

• 17:58Speaker 01

  If you're a woman that's like starting out and wanting to add weight to her lifestyle, like where do you start?

• 18:04Speaker 00

  Yeah. You start, you start, if you've never done it around, uh, it's about three to 5% of your body weight. And that's what we carry, carry. It's about five to eight pounds, depending on your size. And so we think it's optimally weighted, a great place to start. It's an everyday.

• 18:18Speaker 01

  Three to 5% of your body weight.

• 18:19Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 18:20Speaker 01

  120 pound woman is going to wear about six pounds.

• 18:23Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 18:24Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 18:24Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 18:25Speaker 01

  And, and how are they, how is that distributed for, for women? It's just across the shoulders or is it all down the body?

• 18:35Speaker 00

  It's all fractionally loaded. We do make a crop vest, so it's a little more shoulder back loaded. The weight's up there, but on the full vest, it's just like the man's compression vest.

• 18:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:45Speaker 00

  It's fractionally loaded.

• 18:46Speaker 01

  After putting so many of these out on the street, like what has surprised you?

• 18:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:52Speaker 01

  With the testimonials that are coming back from men and women that are, that are wearing weight? Like, was there anything shocking in the data to you about transformation that you didn't expect?

• 19:05Speaker 00

  Yeah. I, it's not that I didn't expect it. I think it's more of the acceptance of it than you're going to hear the stories. It takes a moment to do it. It, you know, we've only been out, until you came, we might as well have been out a year. And so 28,000 vests later, now people are starting to have testimonials a year later. Complete trust. The big thing is the weight loss, right? We're going to lose it off our gut, but you're not going to lose weight overall. You're just redistributing. Now you've got muscle, now it's lean. And now we got the things going on that we all want to be. We want to, we want to look better and we want to stay healthier longer.

• 19:41Speaker 01

  And, and you know, for me, it was just the, uh, the slow incorporation of it into my daily lifestyle. The only times that I really noticed it was one time I was really late for a flight. Uh, I was actually in the lounge and, and the gate was right across from the lounge where uh, I was, I was eating. Um, but I went into the wrong terminal and then I heard them paging people for the flight. And I ran like a half a mile um, to get to my gate. And that's when I really noticed that I was, that I was wearing weight. But what is the advantage of the combination of not just weight, but weight and compression?

• 20:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 20:16Speaker 01

  Why did those two have to go to the same parties?

• 20:18Speaker 00

  Yeah. So weight and compression, and, and I would say that weight compression, and I like to add heat because it's, because it's the three things that really make it up. But it's really, it's, it's, it's your blood flow. Like it's the circulation. And, and when you look at that, when, when I go back to the OG of it's oxygen. And I think we're all talking about oxygen, more oxygen. How do we get more oxygen? It is really the lifeblood for me of the body. And if I'm going to get more healthy, it's my metabolism, it's my metabol, my, my, my health, right? And it's oxygen flow and oxygen. Uh, oxygenized blood to your tissues. I mean, that's, that's anti-inflammatory. That's growth. That's more healing. Uh, it's all those things. So for me, it's all oxygen.

• 21:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:03Speaker 00

  Heat is, uh, heat trap, heat trap, load on and compression and it's, it's transformational.

• 21:09Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, so for men.

• 21:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:11Speaker 01

  Um, that are already doing, uh, you know, ruck workouts, they've waited workouts, which has been around for a long time. I mean, I was, I was rucking with cross, I had a CrossFit gym way back in, in 20, 2013, 2014, 2015. I ended up selling because the, the injuries were so high. Um, and yeah, I didn't like the idea of, of speed and heavy weight, but we did a lot of weighted, uh, types of, of workouts back in the day, but we were limited on what we could do because, um, the way the weight swung around.

• 21:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:43Speaker 01

  So you do a lot of static things like static pull-ups, um, you know, static push-ups, air squats, uh, you know, walking lunges, thing, things like that. What I like about a light lifestyle is that you put it on, you kind of forget about it and, and your body's just pushing a little harder all day.

• 22:01Speaker 00

  Right.

• 22:02Speaker 01

  And that extra boost in metabolism, um, you know, the, our bodies are so adaptive. You know, the body's just an amazing thing. If you push on it, it'll push back.

• 22:10Speaker 00

  Right.

• 22:11Speaker 01

  Um, you know, if you consistently get in cold water, you trigger this hormetic response, you get a, you know, you get a consistent improvement over time. And I would put this in the category of things that I call passive biohacks.

• 22:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:24Speaker 01

  Like the biohacks that don't take any time away from your day because a lot of, if you walk around my apartment, you know, there's like a lot of these things take a lot of time.

• 22:33Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 22:33Speaker 01

  Um, but throwing this on the morning and, and just getting out the door, you know, it doesn't take any time. I, I know too, that you're, you're trying to address some challenges that we have with our military.

• 22:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:44Speaker 01

  As well. Um, what does that look like?

• 22:47Speaker 00

  Yeah. So we were tasked, uh, by a group that takes, um, human performance kits to the Department of War. That's a cool story. Uh, this is probably one of the, one of the more, uh, it's a recent kind of a God story. And it's a recent like, like Brent has a lot of businesses and he figured out a lot of things, but when things happen that you don't expect, this is one of them. Two and a half, three years ago, before I opened the company, I was looking for a physiologist to do the, the data, the analytical data. And there was a guy in Phoenix.

• 23:19Speaker 01

  What, like metabolism?

• 23:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some to caloric burn, um, all the stuff, all the, all the biometrics. And so, um, I gave a guy a vest that was a physiologist in Phoenix. And he said, Hey, I'll get back to you. I'll get, I'll get a proposal to you. By the time he got back to me and already gone on, I'd found another physiologist to do it. And, um, it's been a year and a half, almost two years later, an associate of mine said, Hey, this physiologist got ahold of me and he has given your data to somebody that does human's performance kits and gets them to the Department of War on your vest. I'm like, okay, what does that all mean? He goes, well, you might have a talk with him. And so there was five or six people on this call and, um, here he was.

• 24:04Speaker 00

  This guy that I'd given a vest to never did the work, but he did the data. And that was just like, like how often?

• 24:11Speaker 01

  He did that. What is it? When you say he did that?

• 24:13Speaker 00

  Yes, yes.

• 24:14Speaker 01

  What data did he do?

• 24:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:15Speaker 01

  What, what exactly?

• 24:16Speaker 00

  All the biometrics. So how long in zone two, caloric burn, um, all, all the, um, you know, the measurements that, that you measure, right?

• 24:24Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:24Speaker 00

  Heart rate, um, body fat, all the stuff that the vest.

• 24:28Speaker 01

  What was the outcome of that?

• 24:29Speaker 00

  The outcome of it was incredible in his eyes because no other weighted vest had ever done that. And he'd been doing weighted vests for a long, long time. And so most weighted vests give you weight because of the compression heat and the load. We give you a transformational body.

• 24:44Speaker 01

  Hmm. So, so he looked, I would, I would love to look at that data because I'm, I'm, you know, I come from a data science background. So anytime that you have data behind, uh, is something like a real data, it, it becomes different than just, um, a tool for strength gains, it can become a tool for healthy metabolism.

• 25:06Speaker 00

  Right.

• 25:06Speaker 01

  Um, and depending on what he, he was measuring, which I would love to see.

• 25:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:11Speaker 01

  You, you, you may have sort of a backdoor into metabolic health because if you look at the state of America today with 85% of chronic disease, um, in the opinion of Health and Human Services being preventable, mainly through, um, dietary and lifestyle changes. Um, you know, incorporating a, a lighted weighted lifestyle to me is one of those things that would be easy, easy to do and would have tremendous results. So, so he puts, he puts together this data set.

• 25:44Speaker 01

  And reaches out to the Department of War on his own.

• 25:48Speaker 00

  It was a group that takes, takes, uh, products to the Department of War.

• 25:52Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 25:53Speaker 00

  A human performance kit. They put together two or three things and go.

• 25:56Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 25:56Speaker 00

  We think we can help, help our people be better through this kit.

• 25:59Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 26:00Speaker 00

  So it's two or three modalities. One's a, a resistance cable machine and one's some technology that will measure the biometrics and send it to a centralized data point, which is huge. And so what their goal is to get the recruits, 250,000 recruits are coming next year. Um, I think the rate of failures like, uh, attrition rate's like 16% against, through all the branches of the military.

• 26:25Speaker 01

  16% that enter the military.

• 26:27Speaker 00

  Don't make it to boot camp.

• 26:28Speaker 01

  Don't, don't even make it to.

• 26:29Speaker 00

  Don't make it to boot camp. So they paid them 50,000. They're probably on now disability. It's a multi-billion dollar problem and we lose good men and women that had we done some progressive loading, um, for the musculoskeletal, they may still be here, you know, being warfighters for us today, but they don't even get to.

• 26:45Speaker 01

  Because of injury?

• 26:46Speaker 00

  It's because they're overloading them.

• 26:48Speaker 01

  Ah, too fast.

• 26:49Speaker 00

  Yes, they're, they're too fast.

• 26:50Speaker 01

  50 pound ruck right out of the gate.

• 26:52Speaker 00

  Throwing it right on them. And, and so their goal is to get these recruits in our vests and then work through programming, days off, the whole thing, what they're eating, what they're putting in their body, what they're listening to, the whole body. We want to work, a human performance is not just, hey, how physical can you get? What's your body going to operate like under stress? What's your body going to operate next week like? And what does that programming look like? And so we're, we've been tasked to figure that all out and try to get all or lower attrition rate for sure, rate to boot camp.

• 27:21Speaker 01

  So what is it? What is a, uh, an on-ramp to a 50-pound rucksack look like?

• 27:27Speaker 00

  I think it looks like 15 pounds for three or four weeks. It depends on the person, number one. What they're also seeing over the last few years, there's these high schoolers coming in, they're 20 years old, they're soft. Real fricking soft, Gary.

• 27:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:41Speaker 00

  So the concern is for all of us should be.

• 27:44Speaker 01

  Not Gen Z, that would be millennials.

• 27:46Speaker 00

  Yeah. Can we train and deploy these guys? And the answer is the number is getting larger that we can't. So the problem continues to get bigger, not just monetarily, but who's going to protect us, right? Who's going to the frontline for us? And so I'm totally tapped into how can we help them progress through progressive load? Musculoskeletal, the tissues, the, the ligaments, the tendons that are breaking down in their feet and their shins. Like they, they, it stops them, especially when they throw 50 pounds on them immediately. So it's about a 90-day program, train with weight on, uh, three weeks.

• 28:18Speaker 01

  What's the weight? How's the weight?

• 28:19Speaker 00

  I think it's 15, we think we're working through that. It, we, I mean, we just, we've been in this maybe a month.

• 28:25Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 28:25Speaker 00

  Uh, but we're working through that with another physiologist. What is that weight? What's the, what, what's the optimal weight to start? My thought is it's 15, 25, 35 pounds. And then they're into the 50 when they, uh, and then from there, the idea is they can, if they take the vest on with them, and now they don't have to put so much, uh, unfunctional load on them with a ruck pack. They can keep that vest, get rid of the ruck when they go ruck or, you know, they add weight, but then they can go train in our vest. And it's amphibious. Wherever they want to go with it, they can go in the water with it. They can go wherever they want to go in their vest.

• 28:59Speaker 01

  12 pounds of weight doesn't sound like a bad idea.

• 29:00Speaker 00

  25 pounds. I just did it with 25 pounds, which is the military.

• 29:04Speaker 01

  Gives you some buoyancy, dude.

• 29:05Speaker 00

  A little bit, a little bit. Does not sink you. You'll come back up, but the resistance going horizontally is pretty tough.

• 29:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:12Speaker 00

  In 25 pounds.

• 29:13Speaker 01

  That's great.

• 29:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:14Speaker 01

  So just to kind of land everything we talked about so far, someone listening to this podcast, new to weight, new to rucking, um, uh, you know, is sort of piqued their interest about a lightly weighted lifestyle. Man or woman, where do they start?

• 29:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, I, they start with our OG weight. They start with lighter weight, whether it's us or someone else. You'll hear out there, oh, they need to wear 15 pounds, 10 pounds. I don't know where that comes from.

• 29:39Speaker 01

  Wearing right now?

• 29:39Speaker 00

  You're wearing six pounds.

• 29:41Speaker 01

  Six pounds.

• 29:41Speaker 00

  Six pounds. That's all day.

• 29:43Speaker 01

  I feel like I'm adapted to this.

• 29:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, right?

• 29:45Speaker 01

  I don't even notice this anymore.

• 29:46Speaker 00

  We're going to fix that too.

• 29:47Speaker 01

  Oh, we are?

• 29:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, that progressive load thing. But you know, you start where your doctor tells you to or what you think you're capable of. If you've never done it, you want to start with a lighter weight and then progress into a heavy weight. We want to build your tendons, your ligaments, your fascia up before, we want you to go forward, not backwards.

• 30:02Speaker 01

  Right.

• 30:02Speaker 00

  And especially as we age, we don't have time to go backwards.

• 30:04Speaker 01

  What does that look like on, uh, on an average female?

• 30:08Speaker 00

  I think it's five pounds. Yeah. It's, it's, it's five to eight pounds for an average female. And then we'll progressively load you from there or however you want to do that. You could add all kinds of different weights. But ultimately it's what your body has done. What did it do at five pounds? Is it good? Are you ready? How long have you worn it? Wear eight pounds and then maybe two days off. And, and I think that's where you're reforming, uh, the tendons and, and the ligaments.

• 30:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:32Speaker 00

  Um, and it takes some time. It takes the recovery that, that it's not every day. My, when I started wearing mine, I've worn mine, I don't know, 250 days a year. I never thought about the recovery piece. And, you know, I'm a knucklehead, but, but really, truly the recovery matters, right? You talked about your sleep last night. All that matters in this equation, especially if you're introduced to weight at probably a young age.

• 30:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:55Speaker 00

  Where your body's not, it's not really ready to go yet.

• 30:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. You know, I, I was, I'm 190 pounds now. I was at one time 240 pounds, some muscle, probably a lot of fat. Um, you know, when I was younger, I would try to get big.

• 31:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:09Speaker 01

  And now when I put on, um, you know, some of your heaviest vests and I just go through a regular workout with it, I'm like, wow, dude, just 12 pounds is a game changer. Um, you know, for how much intensity it adds to the same timeframe. And, and for me, it's always about how do I get more out of the same or less time? You know, like what's that typical point of getting the maximum result for the minimum amount of time commitment? And I think everybody would, is in that same bucket of how do I, how do I improve my results by not, you know, extending my amount of time?

• 31:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:48Speaker 01

  You know, the tail end of this book, you said it also talks about, uh, leaving the weight topic for a second. It talks about, you know, meditation and how big of a part of your life that that's been.

• 31:59Speaker 01

  What, what brought meditation into your life? And I'm always fascinated by people who start meditating later in life. Because everyone that I've ever met that meditates on any kind of regular basis, um, founder of Whoop, I mean, all, all these folks I've had on my podcast say that that is the or one of the biggest game changers in, in their life. Do you give it that high of a? Mark in your life too. And what does meditation look like for you?

• 32:24Speaker 00

  When you start it and when you, you know, it's like anything that needs a lot of reps and a lot of practice, might be golf, might be whatever your job is. There's no end to how good you can get to clearing this thing out. Like, like, life is coming at each and every one of us every day and pretty hard. Especially with social media, especially with your job. I think mail's a little more, we've got to provide, we've got to defend. At least that, I felt like that was my role when I started all that 40 years ago. But until you can clear your mind, nothing new can really come in, where it comes in, but then it deflects. And so when I went through my problems at 47 years old, my life coach had me write down what I was thinking about every day. And it was embarrassing, all the thoughts that

• 33:06Speaker 00

  continued to revolve in my mind. Most of them were not good, because people were taking from me. I wanted to fight, you know, that was kind of my mentality. And, and he got me to slow that down, find some love and compassion for myself and others. In my journal, like on every other page, it states that. It states love and compassion for yourself and others. But to get to that place, it takes a little work, especially for a knucklehead like me.

• 33:33Speaker 01

  But what does that look like? It's like meditation, I think that most people is like, you close your eyes, imagine you're on a beach, or you know, it's a long hallway with a light at the end of the hallway. Like, where did it land for you?

• 33:45Speaker 00

  For, for me, it got to a place where I could clear my mind and actually not have a conversation with the man above, but trigger one and listen. When you can actually listen or hear the water or hear a bird, like I would challenge you to go out and breathe and calm your mind and know what you, when you walked out there, what you hear, what you feel, and then take some time, go through some of your breathing methods, whatever the breathing method is, right? And there's, it continues to escalate the better you get at it. Once you see the results, you're going to want more of it, you know, more oxygenization, or slowing it down, or, you know, there's different ways to do all this. But what I'm truly after is to feel my body again, and to forget everything else.

• 34:29Speaker 00

  And then there's a moment where I know I'm at that place and I get grateful. And then I talk to the man above and then I'm cool. That's the place I'm trying to get to.

• 34:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. So Brent.

• 34:39Speaker 00

  But not so much talking, but listening. Thank you. Thank you.

• 34:43Speaker 01

  And in that moment of peace, you actually can.

• 34:46Speaker 00

  Not always, but something good comes, whether it's thought from me, whether it's peace around me, whether it's a bird, whether it's breeze that I now feel that I wouldn't have felt had I not got quiet. So it's appreciation of nature.

• 34:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:59Speaker 00

  That, that I'm really looking for.

• 35:00Speaker 01

  It's so hard for us to just sit in silence. Now, it really is. I mean, I try to do it for a few minutes every day, right out on my balcony, try to get sunlight and do it too. And it's something I really want to get better at. I've never been really good at meditating. It's probably, you know, a weak point for me. Maybe somebody can teach me how to do it right. But, but everyone I know that's, that's meditated on a regular basis says it is top one, two or three things that I've ever incorporated into my life. I think reframing the way that people think about rucking and weight as being something that could be incorporated into their lifestyle, rather than just something they go do at the gym. Again, back to that passive biohack, I think is, was a reframing for me that's

• 35:44Speaker 01

  had very positive consequences. You know, I wind down all of my podcasts and then I know you got a gift for me. So I've been looking at it on the floor. So I'm excited to find out what's in that box. But I want to ask you this question first. What does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

• 36:02Speaker 00

  Well, somebody asked me the other day, how long would I do this? And I feel like this is my purpose. When I sold my company nine years ago, I knew I had a greater platform. And so as long as I can show up, like I am today, healthy, tapped in, wanting to help people, like, let's go. That's, that's the feeling I get. Like, really, I get to do this?

• 36:27Speaker 01

  So an ultimate human is somebody who's on their purpose?

• 36:31Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah. They're on their purpose. They're healthy, part of the human platform, the human performance. Like, that's what we've created. Like, I feel like as long as I'm healthy, vibrating high, working on my health, and I can show up and I can admit that. And if I can do that, I'm on my way.

• 36:47Speaker 01

  I love that. All right. So before we transition to the VIP, what do you got in the box right there?

• 36:54Speaker 01

  All right. So it says move with intention. But hold on, let me read this again. It says to stay at the top of your game, it has to become a lifestyle. I like that.

• 37:01Speaker 00

  And my name's on that. Like, like, like, I gotta, I gotta represent. I gotta show up, right? And that's what you ask about the human.

• 37:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:09Speaker 00

  Your vest, Gary, has been five or six pounds, the boardroom vest, the casual vest, the passive weighted vest. And now we've increased that weight. So obviously you've proven, and I've watched your body.

• 37:21Speaker 01

  I've earned it.

• 37:22Speaker 00

  By the way, I've watched your body over the last year.

• 37:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:25Speaker 00

  Like, how old are you?

• 37:27Speaker 01

  56.

• 37:27Speaker 00

  How are you getting better? It's everything. We go all in. And I think that's the big thing with human performance. No matter what's going on in your body, in your mind, like, let's take it all in. Let's not take just little steps. Let's find adventure in the change.

• 37:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:41Speaker 00

  And so here's change.

• 37:42Speaker 01

  All right. I love this. Oh, that feeling is serious.

• 37:46Speaker 00

  So if you go running in the airport, I wouldn't suggest that just tomorrow. I would, I would take some adaption time to that.

• 37:52Speaker 01

  So what is this one?

• 37:53Speaker 00

  That's eight and a half pounds.

• 37:55Speaker 01

  This is, this is only eight and a half?

• 37:57Speaker 00

  And also think, Gary, a lot of the things I've learned from you, like, it's nonlinear. What's that really going to feel like? Right?

• 38:07Speaker 01

  Should be a picture of Gary Brecka right there. I don't know who this dude is, but.

• 38:12Speaker 00

  That, that weight gain, that, that's so cool that, you know, that's going to feel like maybe 10 pounds, 10 pounds to your body. So take it easy with that, bad boy.

• 38:22Speaker 01

  That's, that's a big transition, man. I'm excited for this. All right. This is, this is going on every day from here, from here forward. You hear that thing hit the floor? Brent, thank you so much for coming on the Ultimate Human Podcast, brother. I'm proud to be your partner and excited about this journey together.

• 38:38Speaker 00

  And if I had to ask one question, how does it feel like for you to be the ultimate human? You got the name. I just showed up as kind of your brother here. Like, you have the name. That's a lot of pressure. I thought about that before I came in and I thought, like, you gotta show up, like, on the top of your game, just like we're saying, not just with the vest, but with your mind.

• 38:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, it's just, you know, it's about being authentic and intentional. You know, I think when, when most people either meet me or they come into my ecosystem, I don't know why it's so surprising, but they're like, wow, you do all the things that you say you're going to do. I'm on my fourth night in a row of 100% sleep scores. I, you know, had a workout with my kids this morning, you know, came home and ate the same breakfast with, you know, with like fermented vegetables and everything. And, and I think, I think being authentic in your journey, transparent and intentional, is, is what makes you an ultimate human. Right? I mean, the disconnect between what you say and

• 39:35Speaker 01

  what you do, or what you advise and what you do, I think that creates a unauthenticity void that sadly exists in a, in a lot of the market, you know, and it forces people to, to take the position that I'm good because everybody else is bad.

• 39:51Speaker 00

  Right.

• 39:52Speaker 01

  And so it's been, it's been a life transforming journey for me too, you know, and I know that I have a responsibility to my audience now. So.

• 39:59Speaker 00

  100%. Everybody asks me, like, what's Gary Brecka really like? And I said, what you see is what he is. He shows up, he's prepared, he's already worked on his body, doing things that you would never dream to be the ultimate human.

• 40:12Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 40:13Speaker 00

  And so, and so I've taken a little bit of that and I appreciate what you've shared with us.

• 40:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's been an amazing journey. And until next time, guys, that's just science.