Show Notes:

A love for the game. “After originally finding a love for soccer and golf growing up, I started to really look at what it was I loved about these sports. I eventually came to the conclusion that I didn’t love the fact that I was in the spotlight, or won championships, or anything that one typically enjoys when playing sports. I realized that I truly loved training for these sports. I didn’t want to give up how I felt during training. I discovered that I could explore training in other ways that didn’t take up 20 or 30 hours of my time every week dedicated solely to an organized sport that was somewhat politically-driven. That’s when I started to shift my focus toward training as a whole. I found myself deeply interested in health sciences, and that’s why I majored in molecular cell biology at Berkeley with a pre-med emphasis and predominantly took courses in cell development and physiology. I really started to understand what’s happening in my body on a cellular level and then combine that with expressing movement and how that changes the physiology and our psychology and our emotions. I got super interested in all of those things and became an avid consumer of scientific literature on fitness, nutrition, and the actual expression of movement. When I finished college, I knew I had to find a way to do all of this for the rest of my life.”

Unpacking Functional Bodybuilding. “Functional Bodybuilding is a conglomerate of exercises and workouts that people didn’t used to mix together. It’s a way to keep doing CrossFit while also introducing other principles that allow people to put a little more emphasis on physique, whether that’s looking good or simply moving well, while also being able to do it for a long time. CrossFit is an intense workout that can cause people to get burnt out easily, but this is a way for people to stay committed. That’s what Functional Bodybuilding is all about.”

Make small, consistent gains. “You must dedicate 60 to 90 minutes to your physical body a day, and you have to be prepared to do that forever. That’s what’s going to lead to optimal outcomes and longevity. On top of that, there has to be a component of strength. There also has to be a component of cardio, respiratory endurance, and nutritional practice and adherence — all of which should be at a level that is just marginally above what you’re doing. Don’t go zero to 100, but instead go zero to 50 and cruise at 50 until you get better and stronger and more consistent. Then after a year of being consistent, maybe take it up to 60 if you desire or if you need it. That’s the non-sexy drum that we’re beating on, which is basically doing the same things over and over again. Make it consistent. Rather than go and do the super hard, detailed, focused, restrictive diets, let’s just make these changes to start with. That’s the message that we want to promote.”

Evolution can’t beat modern hunger. “100,000 years ago, if you were in a calorie deficit, you had to go and hunt for some food, or you had to go and forage for some food, or you just simply had to get out there and go get stuff because you were starving. We have these systems in our body that elevate the urge to do that because back in those days, if you’re starving and you need to go hunt something, you need an internal drive that’s powerful enough to get you up off of your stone and go hunt the thing. In today’s world, the moment you go into a deep calorie deficit, these signals start to turn on in your brain. They start to turn on in your body, and they’re so powerful. The hunger signals that we have and the hundreds of thousands of years — millions of years — of evolution that are driving them are more powerful than your will, because now the food that you seek is not a whole all-day hunt. Instead, it’s literally picking up your phone and ordering Uber Eats or grabbing something out of the cabinet or whatever is out there for you to consume. There’s no shortage of calories that are available to people. I’d love to know this statistic, but it’s something like within 100 feet of anybody, almost at any time, there are probably 10,000 calories available to you.”

The caloric sweet spot. “Focus on getting really aware of how much you’re consuming, and then your body weight and how your body is changing will tell you whether you’re eating too much or not eating enough.”

What does being a game changer mean to you? “Being a game changer fundamentally changes your ongoing approach for the long haul. With Functional Bodybuilding, my hope and what I believe I offered to the CrossFit community was that we changed the game, where we spoke to an audience that originally felt like there was the only right way to do it. We took the narrow margin and expanded it to show everyone that you could do the things you wanted to do. Game changers see a different path forward and seek to make it available to others.”