3 Biomarkers That Predict Longevity and Quality of Life

Most people's longevity biomarkers never appear on a standard checkup and that gap may be shortening your health span. Bestselling author and fitness expert, Timothy J. Ward reveals the three markers that do an extraordinary job predicting how long you'll live and how well, and why training all three is possible at any age, even if you've been told it's too late. This episode is for veterans, first responders, blue-collar workers, and caregivers who are done being told their "your labs are normal" while you body tells a different story. The answers you've been looking for are here!

Chapters

• 0:00 Three Biomarkers That Predict Longevity
• 1:29 Tim Ward on Preemptive Healthcare
• 5:43 Aging Strong In A Sick Culture
• 14:44  Toxic Food
• 17:50 The Health Metrics Doctors Miss
• 25:12 Biomarker Panels And Healthy Baselines
• 29:32 Making Advanced Testing Affordable
• 33:03 Custom Supplement Packs And Bioavailability
• 35:40 The Longevity Matrix And Fitness Quadrant
• 40:41 Training Zones For Real Life and Sports

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Transcript

Three Biomarkers That Predict Longevity

Speaker 0:00

These three things determine how long you're gonna live. And they also determine what quality of life you're gonna have. Muscle mass and strength is your number one biological marker. It predicts your independence, injury risk, recovery, and mortality. Marker number two, heart and cardiorespiratory health. How strong is your heart? Can it move oxygen around? Can it pump blood easily through your body? Third is metabolic vitality. Your blood sugar control, your insulin sensitivity, your energy availability, right? That's that's metabolic vitality. There's a whole study on all three of these things. How do you address these three absolute critical biomarkers in in your life? If you're not addressing these and you're in your mid-40s, early 50s, mid-50s, I have bad news for you. If you're not paying attention to these, you are gonna exponentially be at risk of nosediving and decaying into sickness and weakness. These biological markers become really important. They're easy to manage once you have the information and the determination and the courage to make some changes.

Speaker 2 1:06

Welcome to the New Normal Big Life Podcast. We bring you natural and integrative health information and stories about nature that we hope will inspire you to get outside in adventure, along with a step-by-step plan to help you practice what you've learned to create your own new normal and live the biggest life you can dream. I'm your host, Antoinette Berrafato, the Wellness Warrior. Let's get into today's topic.

Meet Tim Ward And Go Preemptive

Speaker 2 1:29

Best-selling author Timothy J. Ward, welcome back to New Noma Big Life Podcast. Congratulations on your book and becoming a best-selling author in six categories. Oh my God, that's incredible.

Speaker 1:41

Oh, who'd have thought? No, I wouldn't have thought it. Oh, yeah, thank you. Great to be back here. One of my favorite shows is your show. So this is great.

Speaker 2 1:49

I'm so proud of you, Tim. This is so awesome. For listeners who may not have caught your last episode, it was uh season one, episode 29, Muscle Mass, the secret longevity marker. Tell us about yourself. Who are you, what you do, and the one big idea you want listeners to remember from your expertise you're going to share today.

Speaker 2:11

Great question. So I am uh considered, and uh I really, really am good at what I do, which is longevity and uh fitness and wellness. It's been a 30-year journey for me, really understanding the science behind it, becoming educated regarding exercise sciences, working with the right people, a lot of PhD people I've worked with over the years. And what I've done is I have taken heavy science because when you start talking about the human body and performance and blood markers and, you know, all these different cardiorespiratoria, it gets confusing for people. So I saw early on, many years ago, that one of the barriers for the general public is the science of all this stuff. It's really multi-pronged. So what I've done is I've been able to take a lot of the science and whittle it down into systems that people can really kind of understand, they can relate to. So when that happens, that now becomes something very uh practical and achievable for people. So, you know, when people get into that mode, they can actually apply some of this stuff to make a real difference in their life. And what I like to tell people right out of the gates, if you want to add 10 years to your life, there is a definitive way to do that. And I have such a large sample size now of dealing with hundreds and hundreds of people through the systems and through some of my coaching and guidance that they are, some of them are in their 70s and they are stronger, faster than they were in their 50s, right? Better health, you know, it's so it's a real science, and a lot of people are so misinformed about how to actually do this stuff. I have I have put systems in place that are simplified and lots of misinformation out there, lots of myths. And uh, you, Antoinette, as somebody that really had it has engaged heavily in fitness, we share that in common. You know, it it can get to a point where the myths and misunderstandings almost become folklore, like this is you know, the no pain, no gain thing, all those things. And it's just not true. And you know, that was the 70s and Arnold and all the big bodybuilders that made, you know, uh everything popular, you know, back back back in those decades. The fitness, wellness, longevity industry has grown up, and there is an enormous amount of data. But if you can't translate that data into actionable systems, people really miss out on the magic of all this stuff. So I always say to people when I do a speech, or I have a group of athletes I'm working with, most of the people I work with now are between 45 and 75 years old, right? So I tell them this listen, your wellness and your fitness level and your health at some point in your life is gonna be the number one priority for you, either forced upon you or by choice. It's gonna happen sooner or later. So that begs the word preemptive. And I use that word a lot with people to try to get them to understand you have to be preemptive about this stuff. And the more preemptive you are before something bad happens, you are so far ahead of the curve. And that's where I try to get people to think of mentally. What does preemptive mean? What is he talking about? Oh, so fitness, wellness, longevity are so attainable, yet nine out of ten people really don't understand it, or they avoid it, or they think it's something

Aging Strong In A Sick Culture

Speaker 5:43

else. So I think in this day and age, you look at the U.S., we're the sickest country in the world. We we really, really are. And, you know, I think I did a segment with you for a magazine, Antoinette, a while back that really forced me to look at the world stage in terms of mortality rates, longevity, health, dietary habits, you know, all different categories. Preparing for that article, my jaw hit the ground. I was like, wow. The U.S. is just a massive processed food, pharmaceutical consuming. We are getting sicker as a nation. We are not getting more healthy. And, you know, that plays into a lot of different platforms. You know, the money that is made out of cheap processed foods, right? And then the money that is made by the pharmaceutical and medical hospital. It's it's in the trillions every year in profits. Don't you think Wall Street loves that? Right. So, you know, you've got a lot of headwinds against you if you're a citizen here in the U.S. and elsewhere to an extent. But when you begin to break it down, the real things that matter are your wellness and your ability to cope with the headwinds of aging. Aging will naturally degradate the body. We all know that, right? So are you strong enough to deal with the headwinds of aging when you are 50 and 60 and 70 years old? Or do you become a statistic? Do you become somebody that really starts to decay and nosedive faster and faster out of control? And the amount of people that I'm able to meet over the months and years is astounding when I hear the stories and I see people at certain junctures in their life that they're really starting to decay and go downhill. I'm talking people in their late 50s and 60s. And then they look at somebody like yourself or me. I'm I'm I'm 61. My wife is she'll be 64 in three days. We we live the lifestyle. We've been doing it for 30 years, so it's normal. We don't really think about it. But people are like, There's no way you're 61, and there's no way your wife is 64. And in it's not until those moments where where we kind of go, you know, we don't really pay attention to ourselves because it's such a lifestyle thing that we do. But I'm training my jujitsu fighting kids 26 and 28. I think I'm one of them. And they, you know, then I then I'm I'm all sweaty getting my ghee off. I look, I have gray hair on my sides. I'm like, wait a minute. Not these guys. And uh yet I'm still able to train and work out and you know, do all the things in that world, that part of my life of martial arts. But my message to people is look, you if you pay attention and you start to adhere and really kind of understand, you can age strong. You don't have to succumb to what societal norms teach us are normal. Oh, I'm 58, I should be out of breath when I walk up those stairs. Or I really can't play frisbe with you know my nephews anymore, or I can't go surf at the beach. I'm not supposed to. Really? Well, guess what? There's about 10% of the society that are in their 60s and 70s that understand some of the things they need to do to go surf when you know there's a 30-knot wind and there's a six-foot wave at the beach. They can play wiffle ball with a bunch of grandkids or nephews at the beach on 4th of July weekend. They don't have to sit on the sidelines and because their knees hurt and their lower back hurts and they've got the pot belly growing. It's only normal in your mind, right? So that if it's something that's really truly important to you know, somebody listening, there are strategies, and that's what I do, on how to push back on that. And guess what? They're based on science, they work. And, you know, people become very, very enlightened when they gain some of the knowledge, and we'll talk a little bit about some of that stuff today, and they start to gain an attitude of, you know what? I'm not gonna go down the road of decaying and nosediving because I'm 62, you know, or 68 or 71. I'm not gonna do that. I am not gonna go on another pharmaceutical because it masks a problem. You start going down those roads, and I I'll I'll say a prayer for you because you are you are really not gonna turn it around. And uh, I'm telling you, there are absolute ways to turn that around. And I get intense and excited when I talk about this stuff. It really is my life. And I work with people now all over the world because the book went bestseller, all that sort of stuff, which I'm completely blessed for. I I'm just I feel so blessed. But my whole goal is to teach people about this stuff. It is not hard, it requires a little focus, but I beg them to learn it and to put it in play for themselves. My pastor at my church, who does, you know, he does a lot of weddings, he does a lot of funerals, right? I asked him, Bruce, what what is the the number one thing when you're you know you're marrying a young couple or whatever? He says, it's it's in sickness and health. That whole idea we're gonna grow old together in sickness and health, right? I said, you know, yeah, we've all heard that a million times, right? But on the other hand, when somebody really is in hospice or dying, what is really kind of, you know, do you see out of the you know thousands of he said, I'll tell you what it is. The one wish they had, they wish they had more time. He said, eight out of ten of them, they they they they they feel like it's not my time yet to go, yet I can't control it. And it is directly related to your health and your practices. Okay. Your poor health in your 60s started to happen in your 20s and 30s, right? You've got time to turn it around, but but this is my this is my battle cry for society is to learn about this stuff so so you can be there for your kids, you can be there for your grandkids, not just exist, but you can you can you know be engaged in their in their lives, you know? And you will be looked up at by your kids and by your grandkids. You know, my two boys are I still fight with them, and we we we spar, and you know, all his friends are like, dude, I can't believe your dead, your dad and your mom there at Prisbee and playing this, and you guys are you're fighting jujitsu with your dad, and that's so cool. My dad can't even get off the couch, he's 68. So, so I don't again, I don't think about it until those conversations happen. And, you know, I'm thinking, you know, wow, I I guess so. You know, because I don't feel like I'm 61. I just don't. And and you know, my wife is 64, she looks like she's 40, you know, and we don't really think about it. But my thing for people is you can do this stuff. It doesn't take much. You know, you work 40 or 50 or 60 hours a week for 30 or 35 years, and you're you're committed to your company, or you jump through hoops for them. Listen, get selfish for two to three hours a week and work on yourself. You owe it to yourself. You can be have more energy, you can have more mobility, you can have uh just a longer, more energetic life. And I love it when people email me or go to my website and we talk a little bit, or it's just it's just not this is what I'm here for.

Speaker 2 13:19

You said a couple of things that are really impactful. Back when I was in the army and I was a competitive bodybuilder and power lifter. One of the things that my friend group used to say, and and it was also a phrase from the military, is that pain is just weakness leaving your body. To some degree, you can say, yeah, I can agree with that. But when you look back like I am now, I wish I had not bought into that myth. I wish I had not treated my body like it would be young forever. Because now I have to heal some of those injuries that I developed because I thought of my body as this thing I can abuse forever and it will always bounce back and I will be forever young. And the arthritis from my 20s and 30s would not catch up to me when I'm 58. Now, granted, I love it when I'm a sponsored adventure sports athlete. I love it when sponsors think I'm in my 30s. You know, I'm grateful for that. And like you, I feel in my 30s on the inside. But the truth is, we do have control over how we age. In fact, new research says 90 to 98% of our longevity and health outcomes are completely

What The Book Says About Toxic Food

Speaker 2 14:44

within our control. So before we get into unpacking what you've already said, can you briefly tell listeners what they will find when they read The Goat Within, Healthy and Strong or Sick and Weak?

Speaker 14:58

It's it's there's a lot of information in the book. So it's it's not a book that is a straight how-to-work out. It's not that at all. I think that's why it became a bestseller, because when the initial few hundred copies sold, when it got released, I think there was such a sharing of the book, it went into the thousands. And I think one of the reasons that it did that is because I tried to compose the book in a manner that was sort of a real world, uh something very relatable for people. And the very first thing that I talk about, there's a lot of topics in the book, but the first about 80 pages is about the toxic world we live in. And that's the first lesson I try to give people is to get them to understand how toxic the food is, the mass-produced food. And I think we touched on this a little a little bit before in your show. So the first task is to understand that, and that opens the door on how to start eliminating it from your ecosystem, right? So without that piece, it doesn't matter if you've got great workouts, you're super dedicated, you're this, you're this, you're this. If you're eating toxic food, you are going to have a losing hand every time. Toxic food means that you are eating foods that have high sugar content, hence fats, food dyes, seed oils are in about 90% of what we eat. Everything that we're told about, oh, vegetable oil and cottonseed oil and sunflower oil, it sounds so wonderful. Running through a field of sunflowers, right? It is industrial lubricant back in the 50s and 60s. It was built for engines in the Army, in Navy, in Air Force. Okay, they found a way to bleach it, cook it, treat it with chemicals, because they could make 20 times the profit on putting it in a gallon jug and saying, oh, this is healthy cooking oil. These seed oils devastate the human body. They create a huge inflammation process in the body. When we are inflamed, we open the door to all sorts of things, including cancer, obesity, our body metabolic damage that we we can't process foods, we can't transport foods. It is the beginning of the downfall of the human body when we have inflammation. So when I talk about toxicity and foods, nine out of ten things in the store, in the mass-produced stores we all go in, are loaded with it. And you really have to understand it to an extent to avoid it. I go over all that in the book. I give people choices, I make it simple for them. I get a lot of emails saying, oh, that first part of your book, I finally understand why I should avoid this stuff in how to identify it, right? So that was a big piece. That's kind of the first part of the book. And then I go into key longevity factors of this is not normal for the average person to think

The Health Metrics Doctors Miss

Speaker 17:50

of, right? I'll give you an example. So we we go to a doctor maybe once a year and we get our checkup. And there's a few things that doctors focus on. And I had just to just for the record, I train a lot of doctors. A lot of doctors train with me. There's a lot of testimonials I put in the book so readers can kind of read through and go, okay, these are these are authentic. But here's what the doctor will do. Okay, Antoinette, blood pressure's a little off, it's a little high. Yeah, you know, you could, you could, you know, you're a little bit overweight, you know, uh, according to our charts, right? The body mass index chart, which is a huge lie. Type 2, type 2 diabetes may be right around the corner for you, you know, those three things, Antoinette, you know, they have about a 30% increased dying early if you have those things. Whoa, okay. So then they may start to, you know, mention a couple pharmaceuticals you might want to think of. And then they say, you know, if you're a smoker, you have a 50% increased chance of dying younger. Your mortality ratios change. And that kind of wraps it up. And they give you a couple things, pay attention to this, and maybe consider these pharmaceuticals to lower your blood pressure. But here's what they never tell you muscle mass. If you're weak, you don't have the muscle strength in at your age group, or the muscle mass at your age group, your demographic, if you're in the lower 10% of that, you have a 250% increased chance of dying younger. Just from muscle strength and muscle mass. If you have a low VO2 max in your demographic, your age group, right? If you're in the bottom 5 to 10% of lung capacity, lung strength, that's the VO2 max, right, you have a 400% increased chance of dying young. They never talk about it because they're not trained in this stuff. Guess what? Having more muscle on your body, more strength, like above average for your age, or having a strong VO2 max for your age group, that doesn't pay the medical system anything. So I wonder why those metrics, which are colossally bigger than the blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, they're never talked about. So this is the essence of my book. I go over this stuff. Okay. So you have to understand that those two things right there, muscle strength, muscle mass. I'm not talking about being a big bodybuilder. That's not what we're talking about. Talking about being above average for your age group or in your gender, right? They boil down into three biological markers. And these are the three things I'd like people to start to understand better. These three things I'm going to tell you determine how long you're going to live. And they also determine what quality of life you're going to have. Okay, because we can all be hooked up to a machine and be in a chair and be a vegetable and live to where 110. They could do that. We want to be active and participatory in our lives. That's what brings us happiness. Walking a trail, walking the beach, jumping in the ocean. So here are the three biological markers. Muscle mass and strength is your number one biological marker. It predicts your independence, injury risk, recovery, and mortality. Marker number two, heart and cardiorespiratory health. How strong is your heart? Can it move oxygen around? Can it pump blood easily through your body? Third thing is metabolic vitality. Your blood sugar control, your insulin sensitivity, your energy availability, right? That's that's metabolic vitality. There's a whole study on all three of these things. I cover these three things in the book. How do you address these three absolute critical biomarkers in your life? If you're not addressing these and you're in your mid-40s, early 50s, mid-50s, I have bad news for you. If you're not paying attention to these, you are going to exponentially be at risk of nosediving and decaying into sickness and weakness. So I really try to get people, at least open your mind up a little bit in understanding the cards you've been dealt in how do I play my hand in this thing. And I always tell people you can do it. It's not too late to enter the game. Game of a fitness lifestyle, a wellness lifestyle, a longevity-minded person starts to understand what should I do about this stuff. And you will be a very happy person if you start to get your head around this stuff. And that is my whole essence is of teaching people how to do this. And it's not one thing, it's a combination of things, right? So a lot of times we hear I hear this all the time. I talk about it in my book. I get a little wise in the book. I have a network of friends, my wife and I, right? We've known them for decades and so on and so forth. And the ideas that they come up with because they're in their late 50s, early 60s, and they're in really bad health and they're getting a lot worse. I get the silent whispers, hey, can can we do you think we could meet sometime? I'm looking at you and Julian. You guys are diving in the lake and you guys are skin diving and you're catching flounder for your dinner right on the beach. We have big cookouts. They're like, How are you guys doing that in your early 60s? I can barely get up off my chair. You know, we have fires down at the beach where I live in New Hampshire. It's awesome. And there'll be, you know, 12 of us at night. It's so awesome in the summer. But we will literally, we will literally go, you know, you know, go get our food. You know, these people are like, well, what is what is up with you guys? You know? So look, these biological markers become really important. They're easy to manage once you have the information and the determination and the courage to make some changes in your life. There's choice for all of us is your choice. I never berate somebody that chooses something that I don't like or I wouldn't do. I've really learned that. Listen, that's their choice. You have to respect whatever they want to do. I'm simply saying your choices end up piling up on you, whether they're good or bad choices. When it comes to your longevity, you have to learn how to make these right choices. So, so these things, avoiding and eliminating toxic food, it's knowledge-based. Your biological markers, these three things, muscle mass and strength, heart and cardiorespiratory health, metabolic vitality, these are learned things. You never learn this stuff in school. I also write about that. One of the problems in our school system, from elementary school to junior high to high school. We are not taught about this stuff, right? We're taught about a food pyramid that is the biggest scam I have ever seen in my life. It is leading people into sickness and decay. That's the raw truth. Whether you like RFK Jr. or not, the guy is trying to change these things and he's made some real significant strides. And, you know, I tip my hat to him because he is a guy that's in his 70s, and call him what you want, but the guy's doing, you know, 30 pull-ups and 100 push-ups, and he eats very organic farm food. I talk about farm food, earth food, I call it, compared to factory food. Like give people these practical guidelines to start choosing their food better, to start

Biomarker Panels And Healthy Baselines

Speaker 25:12

knowing how to eat well.

Speaker 2 25:13

Sorry. I want to build on something you've been teaching for a while because it really connects with the bigger picture of longevity. A lot of people focus on workouts or supplements, but the real conversation starts with knowing what's actually happening inside your body. That's where biomarkers come in, and they help give us a clearer picture of things like nutritional deficiencies, metabolic health, inflammation, and other signals that can guide you to better decisions for your health, fitness, and longevity in the long term. Can you explain what biomarkers are and what a biomarker blood panel measures?

Speaker 25:49

No, it's a great question. It's a new system that we actually have for our clients. Biomarkers are a measurable substance in your blood that tells a story about your health. It tells a story about the deficiencies. They mark them up against a healthy panel, and then they compare what is in your blood. And it is multiple things. And we could be talking about vitamins and mineral deficiencies, hormone deficiencies, inflammation levels, all sorts of markers. Ours is 120 biomarkers, and it's very enlightening to actually see what the truth is instead of trying to guess what I might need because of some fancy marketing label on a supplement. These biomarkers are front and center for professional athletes. They've been using them for years because they're obviously performance-based. You want better performance. We need to get your markers straight. We need to make sure you have zero deficiencies in all these categories that this measures. So, so biomarkers are a simple measure of blood content. We actually have a dashboard for people that do these biomarkers with us. It's a private dashboard that shows all the 120. It shows your top 15 biggest deficiencies. And more importantly, it shows how to how do you address those. And that's the next thing we do is we are a USA-based manufacturer.

Speaker 2 27:13

So, Tim, you mentioned something that I think is worth repeating for people to really absorb this. You said that the biomarker blood panel is compared to healthy people. And what's important about that is because the blood panels that your doctors will run, it's comparing you to other sick people. So when they say that you're in the normal range, they're talking about you being in the normal range for other sick people, not for against healthy people. But why is a biomarker blood panel important for someone who wants to improve their health and longevity?

Speaker 27:52

Great question. It's very simple answer. If you want to optimize your health, you have to optimize your blood markers. And that is, it's like bringing your car in when it's not running well. They do a diagnostic, and here are the three things that are the problem. And now you have a roadmap on how to correct it, and wham, all of a sudden your car is not sick anymore, it's running like a champ. It's the same thing with your body. You look under the hood, blood blood panels don't lie. They give you exactly where the deficiencies are. So you know what to address. So it's pretty simple. The next thing you need to do is to understand how to address them properly. And what are you going to address them with? And this is where the part of our collaboration comes in. The quality of your supplements matter.

Speaker 2 28:42

Aaron Powell Who typically would use blood panel marker testing? And what have they used the results for to make better decisions about training, nutrition, and overall health?

Speaker 28:55

Another great question. It's been reserved for professional athletes. That's where a bulk of the biomarkers for optimizing health has been reserved for. Very expensive, they can be. You have Olympic athletes that are going for gold. You have pro athletes that are going for massive investment for franchises that want those players on their team. So if you want to avoid injuries, if you want optimum performance, biomarkers tell the story.

Making Advanced Testing Affordable

Speaker 2 29:32

So how does your company make this kind of testing affordable and accessible for everyday people like us, wellness warriors?

Speaker 29:38

So another great question. So the price has been brought way down. My doctors that I actually train as clients still, they're like, how did you get it to $349 for $120 biomarker panel? It's the partners that I work with doch a such a large scale of them. They've been with professional apps. Sometime with book boutique, concierge, you know, medical doctors, it can be much higher than that. One of my clients just paid $4,000 for the same test before I had this system in place last fall. We just brought this system on in January of this year. And my clients are astounded at the results, at the targeted nature of it. It's really, really amazing to make it cost effective for people, to give them that edge where they can really see the difference. And then they can address the difference with the supplementation that this company, I say we, but we manufacture them in collaboration with this company. It's close to a hundred different supplements they make. I'm just so happy that you know they heard me on a podcast actually, bought my book and reached out to me, and I was like, wow, this is this is pretty cool. So so happy to offer it.

Speaker 2 30:50

Sounds like an incredible collaboration.

Speaker 30:53

Oh, it is. It is. And again, I I feel like my goal is just to be a conduit to get to get it to people so they can they can really benefit off this. So far, so good. It's been a few months now. I've been working in the system, and it is so clean and easy. I I do like to mention the the blood biomarker process. People go in on my website, they can click a button and sign up for it. It's done through LabCorps, which they've got I don't know how many thousands of them. They're on every street corner of America. Very seamless, very easy. They pay it, they can go to any lab core, it's in the system. It's five, ten minutes. They walk in, get the blood, the blood gets sent to our medical group, and within two weeks, that person gets an email. They get invited into a private dashboard, and from there, we'll talk about the solution. How do we solve the deficiencies in their blood panel?

Adventure Story Why The Outdoors Matters

Speaker 2 31:47

Before we cover the next topic in this episode, I want to introduce you to the Adventure Sports Lifestyle with a micro story about an adventure that I've had. The Adventure Sports Lifestyle and my deep connection to nature is essential to my good health. So here's the story. I remember the day that I went rafting on a gnarly section of class two plus three minus rapids, a section that I usually whitewater kayak, and it's on the Cache-Lapuder River in near Fort Collins, Colorado. We affectionately call it the Pooder. It was a high water, which meant the water was wicked fast with sticky holes and boulders the size of cars and minivans. And I was newly recovered from shoulder surgery when a friend said, Here, you oar. He handed over his family to me. It was my first time ever paddling an ore frame rafts, and I did it successfully. I got him and his family downriver successfully with a brand new, fully repaired shoulder. And my surgeon happened to be a whitewater kayaker, so he did an amazing job. But I did that. I hope this inspires you to get outside an adventure alone with friends or the people you love

Custom Supplement Packs And Bioavailability

Speaker 2 33:03

most. Now, back to the topic. So, Tim, one of the things that makes your approach different is that you're not guessing. You're using the data from the blood markers to guide fitness and longevity plans and actions. One of the essential steps in your program is that you provide clients with custom formulated supplements, which is blowing my mind by that concept. So, how do you how do your custom formulated supplement packages work? And what does the process look like for someone who wants a plan tailored to their body?

Speaker 33:35

Well, it all starts with the blood work, as we've been talking about. That's the only way to identify the deficiencies. And then the company puts together a custom pack of seven tablets that some of them are multi-stacked with vitamins and minerals, gut bacteria, according to the deficiency. It's made for you. And it's a monthly supply. It comes in a box that is these little pouches that you rip off. So simple. You can bring them with you, but they are customed to your deficiencies. That's the key. It's a replacement cost for 99% of people, meaning people spend, in my research, $80 to $200 a month on supplements. They're carpet bombing. They don't even know if they need them. They're guessing. Oh, that these packs are a fantastic price point, $149 a month for everything you need in that custom pack. It is so economical for people. I'm on them. I feel like I'm sleeping better. I feel like I'm recovering better. And the quality of them, which we'll get into in a second, next level. A small company, it's not offshore, but the quality and the grade of those individual products, like unbelievable creatine, that rapidly absorbs into your body. So bioavailability becomes a real important word when we start talking about supplements and what do they really do for you, right? So most people, it's expensive urine. I hate to say it, but it is. It's just your body doesn't assimilate the typical traditional supplements that are out in the market and dominate the field. So these are different.

Speaker 2 35:10

For those who don't know what bioavailability is, it's your body's ability to absorb the thing that you just took in. Otherwise, you just eliminate it the next time you go to the restroom. And so having supplements that are highly bio bioavailable is very important. Otherwise, it's just expensive urine. So, Tim, you often talk about six major steps people need to follow to add years to

The Longevity Matrix And Fitness Quadrant

Speaker 2 35:40

their lifespan. What are those six steps? And how do they help people visualize a path they can follow?

Speaker 35:47

Well, great question. This is a big topic. We've already talked about two of the steps. First is eliminating toxic nutrition. That's step number one. All the way at the bottom is customized blood work and customized supplements, right? In the middle are the four other steps, and that is my trademark fitness quadrant. And that fitness quadrant addresses the four big major phases of wellness and longevity. In the fitness quadrant is this picture four boxes, right? The upper left box is resistance training. That's the pathway to manage your muscle mass and your muscle strength. The top right quadrant is nutrition. Nutrition rebuilds tissue, it gives us energy, it determines insulin sensitivity, all that stuff, right? The bottom left is your cardiovascular protocols. How do I have a strong heart and lungs? Okay, the heart is a muscle. So if we have the right cardiovascular protocols, the left ventricle wall of the heart actually thickens. The heart gets stronger and heavier. It's a muscle. The stronger your heart is, it pumps blood with ease through your body. So we want to pay attention to that quadrant. The bottom right quadrant is something that is absolutely critical, and that is your rest and recovery quadrant. How do I rest? How do I recover from the stress I just put on my body through a workout? How do I feed it after workout? Okay. So these four quadrants become the real bullseye, and they're wrapped around eliminating toxic nutrition at the top and feeding ourselves targeted supplementation at the bottom. And I just will say this one thing, Antoinette. When it comes to targeted, high-quality supplementation, we have an enzymatic process before we encapsulate our vitamins and supplements. And what that means is they're pre-digested with enzymes. So that's why the bioavailability we have is so high when people use our supplements. It's a critical thing to understand. It's not a cheap process when you start talking about bioavailability. You can eat all the supplements you want, but if your body's not using them, it really is a waste of money. Targeted, high quality, enzymatic, predigested. It's a game changer for people, and their money is actually starting to really work for them with their supplement purchases.

Speaker 2 38:06

What does it mean to you when you say predigested? Because I I can imagine some wellness warriors are thinking about how a mama bird feeds a baby bird where she sort of predigests the meal. So explain that to those unfamiliar.

Speaker 38:21

We have a lot of birds at the factory. It has to do with certain enzymes that if you have a VAT of vitamin C or a multivitamin, they it's like a fermentation process with enzymes. It ferments the uh targeted supplement or multivitamin, and then it's dried and encapsulated. So it already has gone through a digestive process with natural enzymes. So by the time somebody takes the capsule, the bioavailability is like fects for somebody.

Speaker 2 38:46

So it's a simple can absorb it four times faster, which means you use more of it. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 38:53

You get the effect of the supplement you're buying, and that's obviously what we're all looking for.

Speaker 2 38:58

Can you walk us through what the longevity matrix is and why you created it?

Speaker 39:03

So the longevity matrix is really those six things we talked about. And what I mean by longevity matrix is it's it's not a one-off thing, meaning we talked touched earlier upon this. It's not just having resistance training. It's not just about eating well on its own. The longevity matrix is a combination of these six things that, if you do them properly, it's a system, and each one of them can be isolated so people can understand why they would do this. Why would I avoid toxic nutrition? That's why I would avoid it. Why would I do resistance training at least two times a week? We have protocols to show people all that stuff on resistance training, how to do it the right way. Why would I eat a certain amount of protein up in the nutrition quadrant? Why would I not eat carbohydrates at night if I'm after a certain goal? Okay. So these six components are combined to have a vital outcome. People have different outcomes. Some people want to lose a lot of weight, some people want to get stronger or they can fix their joints. So there are different outcomes for all of us. And most of those outcomes can be achieved through the longevity matrix. If you look at it, a pro athlete would go through the same thing. We would just change each component a little bit more. Like they would do resistance training five days a week in certain patterns rather than just two or maybe three days a week. So we tweak the matrix to accommodate the outcome for that person. So this is where all the science comes into play that we do all the science for people. We give them the

Training Zones For Real Life Sports

Speaker 40:41

blueprint and people love it.

Speaker 2 40:43

And you've taken a step to make your programs more accessible to more people because, like you were saying, your book has just exploded onto the world stage and everybody wants to work with you. And, you know, to scale your ability to help more people, you've created several training modules on your website which people can use and it's a more flexible system. Can you tell us about that?

Speaker 41:07

So the seven different zones. I've got a zone one, which is for beginners, people that may be 50, 60 years old, 70 years old, that need a real easier modality on how to train. It could be somebody that has a hip replacement or a knee replacement. So zone one is really kind of for beginners to go through simplistic exercise routines, and I explain it on a couple of the modules. I really dive into it. It also goes over biomechanics, how to do the movements properly, and I dive into it so people can get knowledgeable for it. Zone two is more robust. It's for the upper middle of the road that we have some pretty hard workouts in there. Uh the zone three is a one-on-one private module. People contact me and I put them into those modules, and they literally work one-on-one. I custom design the entire longevity matrix for them. I literally write it out and I onboard them and they work with me every week one-on-one. Talk about the changes they make is off-the-charts changes. Zone four is nutrition. I talk all about nutrition, how to design it right for yourself. And all these modules are $129, is all I charge. And they're basically libraries. They can go in and I give them 90 days access to the libraries, and they can really kind of go through. And I keep adding workouts to them so people, you know, can get a little bit different workout. Zone six, I believe, is six interviews and podcasts. That's free. Like this podcast I'll put on there so people can listen to us. Zone seven is if you're a pickleball golfer or tennis player, I have workouts for rotational integrity, rotational strength. Because pickleball is huge, but there's a massive amount of injuries in pickleball. People just think I'm going to get out there and play, and all of a sudden they have all these problems with their hips, knees. So I have workouts that address rotational force production, directional change, all those things that they can incorporate in 35 to 40 minutes in workouts. I'm excited about this whole new zone system that I came up with. That's awesome. That makes it accessible for people that don't, you know, don't have a lot of money to pay a trainer like me to really work directly with them. So that's my goal is to get people active, get them doing it the right way. And I thought this would be a really nice way to do it.

Speaker 2 43:18

I love this concept. And you know what? I'd love to collaborate with you on a module for people who are participants in paddle sports like kayaking, rafting, stand-up paddle boarding, because there are a lot of shoulder knee injuries. And you really have to have a lot of core strength and core rotation. And as a former competitive bodybuilder and power lifter, I really struggle hard with core rotation, even in my golf swing and in paddleboarding and kayaking, for example, because when you build these big wide lats, they're hard to move. Later, you know, you get really stiff. So yeah, let's think about that as a future collaboration.

Speaker 44:05

I would love to. I would love to do a zone with you and put it on there. Uh and to just to add to that point quickly, when you talk about bodybuilding or powerlifting, just so people understand, yes, that is resistance training, but that is for a complete different outcome. Those are different protocols. Okay, so people get confused at that. Um, a martial artist or an MMA guy train a lot of them. We're not after big, bulky muscles, but we're after strong tensile strength. We're after massive mobility, we're after radial strength, and that's like paddleboarding. A lot of core work, a lot of shoulder strength, a lot of knee strength, the femoral head that sits up in the hip. You have to have training exercises and patterns that strengthen those modalities, and that's a that's a specific outcome. So a guy like me, I can write those training protocols that can really up the game of a paddleboarder. Really up it. So yeah.

Speaker 2 45:01

And you know, there are competitive kayakers there and paddle boarders, there are professional raft guides, and they all need some help with maintaining their well, obtaining it when they're first getting into the sport and then maintaining it throughout their athletic careers. So, how does your training library complement your biomarker testing, your supplements, and then the longevity framework that you've built?

Speaker 45:29

No, it's a great question. And I I often talk about a combination, right? It's never just one thing. So if somebody really wants to hit the switch in their life and really want, and maybe they're not as healthy as they want to be, and they know, hey, the last 20 years, I really haven't paid attention, I've gotten out of control. So, you know, the the full stack, I tell people, the two easiest things to do is to eliminate toxic food. Learn about that. That's in my book. It's an $18 book on Amazon. If you read that, that's going to bring you way down the road on understanding how to do that. The second easiest thing to do, get a blood test and start getting supplements into your body so your body can start to optimize. That's an easy thing to do, right? The next thing is understand the fitness quadrant. Understand it. How do I incorporate resistance, nutrition, cardiovascular, rest and recovery? It's a system. So if you really want to turn the corner and wow your friends out in a year and they start looking at you going, what happened to you? You have to do everything and make it a lifestyle. And Antoinette, just you come from training and working out. You don't need to be in the gym 20 hours a week.

Speaker 2 46:42

No, you don't.

Speaker 46:43

Okay. And you brought up such a great point. Your life now is not bodybuilding and powerlifting, it's functional integrity, it's endurance. Your body needs to produce strength at different angles to whitewater raft, to paddle board. So there's there's modalities that address all of that stuff, right? So so that's where the science comes into play. How do you design a program that's achievable, practical? Somebody can can stay with it, right? And all our workouts are about 45 minutes and you know, not living in the gym. Nobody wants to do that unless you're a little weird. And you you want to be in the gym for three and a half hours. I don't, you know, I want to get in, do my business.

Speaker 2 47:24

I would rather be out outside anyway. And you know, in my life, I'm trying to undo what I did to my body as a competitive power lifter and bodybuilder. You know, that bulk does not serve me. I can still lift 100 pounds and on my property, you know, I live rural and we have a homestead, and I lift 100 pounds like it's nothing every day. So, like, for example, when we first bought our cabin in the woods, the previous owner left this old couch, and then we let the couch stay outside because we're going to take it to the dump. And so it was then saturated with water and snow and ice. So it made the couch even heavier. And so the uncles said, Don't lift that couch, young lady, until one of us can help you, or let the men do it, right? So meanwhile, they're taking down this huge tree that was damaged by a storm, and they're wondering how the couch got from the garage to the sitting in front of the pickup truck. And Matt said, Well, you know, Antoine did that, right? She didn't listen to you. I moved the couch by myself when three men were like, Wait for us, you know. So I'm strong, but I have to undo the stiffness, the tightness, and the lack of mobility, stability, and flexibility that I lost from building up big muscles. So now I'm still strong, like you were seeing. I'm strong, but I'm smaller and I'm more flexible, more mobile, more stable, which is huge considering I broke my back and had a traumatic brain injury. And in 2014, I was using a walker service dog and a full-time caregiver. And today I don't use any of those things. I get on my paddleboard. Most people are afraid to stand up on their paddleboard. I get on my paddleboard, stand up on it, and go on moving water down the river.

Speaker 49:21

That's awesome. Wow, what a story. What a what a turnaround, right? The power lifting and the bodybuilding, those are linear movements most of the time. So when we start talking about functional training, which we're talking about compound movements that multiple joints are moving at the same time, multiple limbs, and you're often using rotational power, whether it be your shoulder joint, lower back. So those things become really important to living a think of your life, everyday task. If you're bending down to pick up, you know, a heavy trash bag, you pick it up, you rotate to throw it in the dumpster at the garbage, right? These are rotational protocols. Those are not linear things. So remember, a muscle in a joint will strengthen in the range and the direction which it is worked. So if you're only doing linear movements to have strength there, yes, right? But it's like in jujitsu, you have a guy that's, you know, I'm 190 pounds. I got a guy that's 240, bodybuilder, steroid guy. I know he's way stronger than I am, but he has linear strength. So when we go at it, all I have to do is use my mobility, get him off center, all right, under his arm or in his leg, he's toast. He's like a ragdoll to me because he has 100%. Radial strength. So I manipulate the joint and the guy's tapping out, and he's all angry because he's 26, 61, and I'm not sweating, I'm not breathing, and he's like dripping sweat, right? Because so that's a great example of radial strength, which a paddle boarder has to have.

Speaker 2 51:02

Or even someone who's picking your child or grandchild up off the floor, rotating and then putting them on your hip, that's the same sort of principle.

Speaker 51:13

That's the same principle. And our joints play into that, our central nervous system plays into that. So joint integrity, we have a whole mobility zone on our thingy. We've got, I think, six mobility uh sessions to show people a routine on all of that stuff. And it really, really matters, especially when you age. You start to lose collagen production, you start to lose synovial fluid, which is lubricant for our joints. So we have to address that if we we we still want to be flexible and mobile. When we're 60, 70 years old, if you don't, you lose one of the biggest things in your life, and that's your freedom. You lose your freedom if you lose those that that ability

Reversing Limits And How To Connect

Speaker 51:54

to move, right?

Speaker 2 51:55

So And Tim, for people who have not focused on their fitness or their wellness in general, and they're in their 30s, 40s, 60s, what I have learned is a lot of times your doctor will say these things are not reversible. So for example, I was told I'm going to progress from a walker to a wheelchair and I run a mile, you know, and I cross-country ski for three, four hours. It doesn't mean that I'm without pain because I have arthritis from my neck to my tailbone. But the important point I want people to remember is that don't believe the limiting beliefs that even your doctors and your family members have put on you. A lot of things that we thought before were not reversible are reversible. In 2014, I could not make sentences. And today I am a podcast host. Wow. So for anyone listening who wants to connect with you, who wants to join your programs, get your supplements, take the biomarker testing, how do they find you? How do they connect with you?

Speaker 53:05

Thank you for that. Everything is on my website, www.lifesttrong.net. Um, everything is there. The book is there, all the zone modules will be there. It really is an ecosystem I've created with our website. So all the topics we talked about today can be discovered there. And I have uh an email link that people can email me if they have questions or they need some advice. I'm here for people. I get back to everybody that uh that emails me. So that's a great place for people to go. And of course, Amazon is the book. The goat within encourages people to uh pick up a copy and read it. I think it's just loaded with so much good information, a lot of which we've talked about today. So thank you for that.

Speaker 2 53:47

As always, this has been insightful. I can't wait for our next conversation.

Speaker 53:51

Thank you so much, and thank you to all your listeners. I really, real, really am glad to be here. The information

Closing Medical Disclaimer

Speaker 53:57

in this podcast is not medical advice and should not be treated as such. Always consult your physician or healthcare professional before pursuing any health related procedure or activity.