Unlocking the Secrets to Lifelong Energy & Performance

Overview

In Episode 5 of the podcast, guest Jay Ferruggia, a respected fitness expert and personal development coach, shares insights on fitness myths and effective training principles, emphasizing that fat loss is primarily about diet, stress management, and sleep, rather than training alone. He discusses his personal journey from insecurity to confidence, highlighting daily non-negotiables that contribute to self-esteem and the significance of making choices that benefit one's future self. The episode also covers stress management and recovery, warning against an overdependence on technology and advocating for listening to one's body. Lastly, Ferruggia stresses the importance of intention in lifestyle changes, the integral role of fitness in personal development, and the need for collaboration between fitness and healthcare professionals. Action items include implementing daily habits for personal growth, focusing on correct exercise selection for recovery, and balancing learning wi​​th practical application in self-improvement efforts.

Notes

Fitness Myths and Training Principles(00:00 - 12:10)

• Jay Ferruggia introduced as a renowned fitness expert and personal development coach
• Fat loss is 85% diet, followed by stress management and sleep
• Training is the least effective for fat loss
• Emphasis on performance tracking in training for motivation
• Importance of adapting exercises to individual needs and anatomy

Personal Development and Mindset(12:11 - 21:57)

• Jay's personal transformation from shy and insecure to confident
• Importance of acting your way into thinking differently
• Daily non-negotiables for building confidence and self-esteem
• Influence of personal behavior on others
• Emphasis on making decisions that make your future self proud

Stress Management and Recovery(21:57 - 33:58)

• Importance of proper exercise selection and parameters for recovery
• Sleep, nutrition, and stress management as top recovery strategies
• Caution against overreliance on biohacking tools like Whoop
• Emphasis on listening to one's body over relying solely on technology
• Importance of fatigue management in training

Lifestyle Changes and Goal Setting(33:58 - 44:32)

• Discussion on the importance of intention and manifestation
• Fitness as a cornerstone of personal development
• Balancing learning and action phases in personal growth
• Collaboration between fitness experts and healthcare providers
• Importance of 'walking the walk' in fitness and healthcare professions

00:00
Dr. William Seeds
What's the secret to lifelong energy and performance? Well, here today we're going to seek those answers. Out with Jay Ferruggia. Welcome to Redox Revolution. We're here for another episode. I'm here with Matt and Maddie and thank you guys for joining me as always, because you have to. Matthew, would you like to introduce our guest today? 

00:32
Matthew Seeds
Absolutely. We are very fortunate to be joined today by Jay Ferruggia. He is a renowned fitness expert and personal development Coach with over 25 years experience in the industry. He specializes in helping men build muscle, lose fat and optimize testosterone levels. He served as an advisor to the NFL, MLB and WWE athletes as well as high performing executives. He's been featured in prominent media outlets including cbs, espn, Men's Health and Men's Fitness. He hosts the Jay Ferruggia Show, a podcast where he shares his expertise on fitness, nutrition and personal development. And of course, he's active on all social channels. Jay, thank you for joining us. 

01:17
Jay Ferruggia
Thanks for having me. It's like to be here. 

01:19
Matthew Seeds
What is one fitness myth out there that's still out there that drives you a little bit? 

01:24
Jay Ferruggia
I would say the top one that comes to mind is that there's such a thing as a fat loss workout. There's no such thing as a fat loss workout. Fat loss is diet. First of all, fat loss is diet. It's 85 diet. But then it's also stress management reduction and it's sleep before training. So those three things, training is last and you could literally do five reps and rest three minutes between sets. Never get your heart rate up, never break a sweat and still get down to single digit body fat. It's the least effective thing for fat loss. 

01:52
Matthew Seeds
It's, it's funny you bring up fat loss because, you know, many people train specifically for esthetics, but you've always emphasized performance. Why is that the number one thing that you emphasize? How do you structure training to support long term health other than just, you know, short term gains? 

02:11
Jay Ferruggia
Yeah, so the majority of people, obviously we're the exception, but the majority of people hate going to the gym. And one of the reasons I always point out is because you're not tracking performance. So like if you started a business and the business never grew and you weren't tracking anything, you would hate it. If you started playing the guitar and you didn't see improvements, you would hate it. Like if you could only just play a C chord forever. And so going to the gym and tracking your performance actually makes it addictive. Like I can only do one, pull up, and now I can do six. I can only bench press 135 pounds and I can do 225. My cardio time is this and now it's this. So that becomes addictive. 

02:44
Jay Ferruggia
And then as you're, it's, you don't see esthetic changes on a week to week basis, but you see performance changes. Like if you're training properly, if your frequency, your volume, your intensity, your exercise selection is dialed in, you can get stronger every single week of the year on the majority of stuff that you do and that becomes addictive. You can bring your conditioning times down every week, all those things become addictive. And then eventually, if you improve your strength, let's say 10%, 20%, 30%, your physique looks totally different. 

03:13
Matthew Seeds
You say you don't see changes on a week to week basis. I'm going to disagree with you. When he doesn't hit the gym because he's traveling, he does look noticeably smaller. 

03:21
Jay Ferruggia
Oh, same. Yeah, you know, most people. No, but I get it because I'm a lifelong hard gainer. 

03:26
Dr. William Seeds
So brutal, right? Yeah, like he's my son. He's supposed to be. 

03:32
Madison Lepore
I can validate. 

03:32
Matthew Seeds
Yeah, you better be locked and loaded. 

03:33
Jay Ferruggia
Yeah, yeah, but I'm the same way. 

03:35
Dr. William Seeds
Though, isn't that true? 

03:36
Jay Ferruggia
You know how a lot of people say they go away on vac, they gain 10 pounds, I lose 10 pounds on vacation. 

03:41
Dr. William Seeds
Yeah, you're right on target with, I mean, from my, I, I look at things from a molecular standpoint in the cell and you couldn't have said anything better. I mean, people get so focused on all these outliers and you just, you got right to it. And, and I really appreciate that for people to hear. I've got, I've got something that maybe you can help me with here. Last night I got in the elevator after dinner with my son, little meeting. I get in the elevator and these three young ladies come in the elevator in their nice dresses from some wedding. 

04:21
Matthew Seeds
Bridesmaids, brides. 

04:22
Dr. William Seeds
Oh, they were bridesmaids. That's why they all look the same shade. 

04:25
Matthew Seeds
That's why they were matching. Oh, there was a wedding in the hotel. 

04:28
Dr. William Seeds
Okay. Well, they had their champagne and they were out of their minds. Gone. And this. And I was being the nice guy, trying to say what floor? And I said, oh, you ladies look so nice. This lady leans back and she goes, your shirt's too tight. And I'm like, that was brutal hit. Like, I haven't been hit like that before. And I didn't know how to respond. 

04:55
Jay Ferruggia
Right. 

04:55
Dr. William Seeds
And I'm like, what do I do with this? Because I don't like it. You know, it didn't feel right. And so then my son. So then she goes to your defense. So let me finish the story. So then for some reason, they're like, I guess my son says this, I didn't hear this, but he said, they asked you, was that a small size you were wearing? And Matthew jumps in on the. To trample me and says, it's schmedium. It's a schmedium. 

05:26
Jay Ferruggia
Sure. 

05:27
Matthew Seeds
They were saying, it's a small. I said it was one size up. You know, we're small. You wear schmedium. 

05:31
Dr. William Seeds
And then all the words were, oh, you wear schmedium. Oh, you schmedium, man. I've got these three women just going at me. I'm like, what is going on here? So, Jay, wow. How does a guy that. You know, I've been focused my whole life on exercise and doing the right things. I've made all the mistakes. I'm trying to represent my age well. And I'm in an elevator getting beat up by three drunk women from a wedding. And. And I never thought that would happen. Like, I. I was bullied and I couldn't adapt. At the time, cell adaption was not an option. 

06:09
Jay Ferruggia
Right, right. 

06:10
Dr. William Seeds
So. So what do you. What's my comeback? Like, help me. Do you have anything to help me? Or is it. Is it an insecurity I have? Like, what the hell was that? Because it was really. It bothers me to right now. And I thought, I'm going to ask Jay because I bet he can help me with this. 

06:26
Jay Ferruggia
No, I love it. I love it. I think people should be proud. I feel like there's too much. 

06:33
Matthew Seeds
You. 

06:33
Jay Ferruggia
Know, influencing people to not be proud and not be masculine and not be like, I mean, you've worked hard where your schmeds, you know, showed off. Be. Be proud. 

06:42
Dr. William Seeds
Well, I think this goes back to, you know, when people. When I'm on stage and talking and I'm talking about, I. I gotta walk the talk, of course, with what I do. 

06:53
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

06:53
Dr. William Seeds
And people think this just happened overnight. And it's like, you, We've been doing this our whole life. 

06:59
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

06:59
Dr. William Seeds
It's like, this is not. It's not an easy road. It's not like it just happened over two years. I spent my whole life doing this, and those women took it away from me in, like 20 seconds. I was like, oh, they didn't. Well, it was that feeling of, wait a second, I always have a comeback. 

07:17
Jay Ferruggia
Right? Right. Well, that I get. That I get not having a good, witty comeback is tough. But I mean, the ultimate status symbol for anyone our age is a well built physique. Like you can buy this, you could buy Jordans, you could drive a Benz, whatever. But nothing compares to that because you're in the top 1% walking around at your age looking like that. 

07:35
Dr. William Seeds
Jay can be here every day. Let's make sure this happens. Or we could call a friend. Like when you guys give me shit. I want Jay. I want to call Jay. 

07:45
Matthew Seeds
Okay, getting back on track. Jay, how do you see muscle mass, whether it's in a schmedium or not, and strength playing a role in healthy living and disease prevention? Starting to get into some of the things that we like to talk about here. 

07:59
Jay Ferruggia
I think it's the. My good friend Dr. Gabrielle Lyon calls it the ultimate longevity organ. Right. So I think the more muscle you have as you get older, the better it is for anti aging. For all the things that happen as you get older, you know, your reduction of injury and all those things, you're just going to age more gracefully if you have more muscle on the opposite. 

08:18
Matthew Seeds
Side of that, what are some of the biggest mistakes then that can be sort of health destructive, that whether people think they're beneficial or not, they're still making the mistakes. 

08:27
Jay Ferruggia
So the mistakes that most people make is they basically, they try to make training like a Rocky 4 montage or something where it's not effective if you're not sweating and leaving, you know, like lying in a pool of sweat and blood and tears. It's got to be the hardest thing you've ever done where really effective training isn't that fancy and exciting and sexy. It's super simple and basic and on paper it really looks boring. Like if most people come to the gym with me, like this seems so boring. Like we're doing low volume that we could recover from. We're doing heavy weights for anywhere between five and ten reps. I'm resting three minutes between sets, not doing insane amounts of cardio, really just walking, getting steps and doing small amounts of hit throughout the week. 

09:12
Jay Ferruggia
So I think, you know, that kind of, I can get into details, but higher level, that's really the mistakes that most people make. 

09:19
Matthew Seeds
It sounds like you're kind of leaning into something that over the past couple years, as our travels really ramped up, I'VE started listening a lot more to like my central nervous system. Like how fatigued do I feel? And, you know, I've started implementing something where on the days that I fly home, I'm not going to lift that day. I'm going to prioritize, sleep, like I'm going to eat enough of my food for dinner, go to bed, wake up the next day completely revamped and ready to go after multiple days in a row. You know, even if the schedule says you're doing five sets, three or five exercises, three sets each, if I'm just not feeling it, I'll kind of ramp it down and it'll be a maintenance lift instead of like a growth lift. Right. 

09:57
Jay Ferruggia
So, yeah, I mean, you hit on the word there. That's one of my main things is fatigue. So fatigue management. And so there's the things that cause, like you always want to minimize fatigue as much as possible. So the things that cause the most fatigue would be stretch position exercises like an rdl. High reps would be second, taking sets to failure would be third, and then volume would be fourth. Most people think volume's first. 

10:22
Dr. William Seeds
But can you tell people what RDL means? 

10:25
Jay Ferruggia
Romanian deadlift. Like a semi stiff legged deadlift. There's small differences between the two. Or Romanian deadlift will hit more glutes, semi stiff legged will hit more hamstrings. But it's basically a very similar exercise, but a stretch position exercise. So anything that causes a lot of soreness is going to cause more fatigue. So if went to the. If all of us went to the gym today and we did rdls and we did reverse Nordics and we did flies and we did, you know, like a lot of lat stuff, we'd be super sore, but we'd be tired tomorrow, we'd more fatigue and our workout would suffer more. So I'm always trying to. There's always going to be some fatigue. But what a lot of people don't take into account when they go to the gym is you already have the fatigue of probably not sleeping optimally. 

11:07
Jay Ferruggia
You're stressed out at work, you're over consuming caffeine. You know, all these things are contributing to you feeling tired, traveling, whatever. So you go to the gym, you got to keep that in mind. That's just more stress and more fatigue. And then you wonder why I get the flu every other week and I feel like shit. You know, it's like your training is actually contributing to that if you're doing things wrong. 

11:28
Dr. William Seeds
What Jay talked about is so important in his training method that he keeps so simple. And we can relate it into what we just talked about in our performance. Mastermind and Vail is that parasympathetic. Parasympathetic drive and how you're trying to balance. He's. He's right on the money because, you know, it's what you don't want. It's that sympathetic overdrive you don't want to have. And it's where all these idiots out there are taking all of these precursors and things to get revved up to work out. And you're just like. You're just destroying yourself to do that. Right. And his. His approach is just so basic, but so on target. And I think that's really relevant. And I almost, in hearing him talk, it's kind of like yin and yang of, you know, he's talking about fatigue, he's talking about exercise. 

12:18
Dr. William Seeds
And then we're very focused on the recovery period because that's where metabolism, that's where the immune system, that's where everything comes together to take advantage of repair and recovery to make the workout better. Next, right. To keep adapting and improving. 

12:38
Madison Lepore
So don't you say building muscle is all about how you recover? 

12:42
Dr. William Seeds
Absolutely. Well, it's recovering. So Jay and his talents in knowing the next steps. How far can you push somebody? How. And it's individual, right? It's. 

12:57
Jay Ferruggia
It's right. 

12:58
Dr. William Seeds
It's tailored. No way's the same for sure. And that's where. That's the same thing of. And I'll stop here and let you go. It's like when you get a bullshit protocol what to do, and you know in a magazine and says, hey, do 20 sets and this and this. And you're just like, I read that. And I go, what the hell is that? And you hit it on the head. It's. You got to be smart. 

13:22
Jay Ferruggia
I want touch on what he just said is recovery starts with proper training. Yeah. So if you're already over training, you're going to need way more of the methods to recover. Like, guys will come to me like, I need art and a massage every other day, and I'm in the sauna and the cold plunge. I'm like, I don't even know if you need all that. 

13:38
Speaker 5
You. 

13:38
Jay Ferruggia
We need to optimize your training, because if you have that much inflammation, your training's wrong. So recovery starts with optimizing your training and the loading parameters that go into training. And then all of a sudden, you shouldn't need all that stuff, you shouldn't need to warm up for 45 minutes because you're creating so much inflammation. So if we get your training dialed in, that's the first step in terms of recovery. 

14:01
Matthew Seeds
So when it comes to fatigue and recovery and everything, a lot of what we talk about here, you know, peptides, peptide therapy that's starting to get integrated more and more into the strength community. I mean, in fact, with the SSRP Institute, we've talked at length about how one of the biggest groundswells right now is coming from the gym community. And it's fantastic. They're getting more involved. They're sometimes they're speak in circles around doctors, medical providers. Yeah. So they're. They're making their space known. But what are. What are your thoughts on, you know, peptides or maybe even just biohacking as. 

14:34
Jay Ferruggia
A whole in terms of peptides? I mean, I think there's tons of benefits. Like, I have a lot of guys that use BPC and TB500 for healing injuries. I. I see tons of benefits there. I mean, I'm not the expert. I have, you know, a pretty decent level of knowledge. But I. I love all that stuff. I'm pro all that stuff. But again, it's like, my thing is, let's do all the things to make sure you don't need it or need the least amount of it first. 

15:01
Dr. William Seeds
Best approach. Right. It's a tool in your toolbox, and it's something you have to make what you do better if it's needed. And I think that's brilliant. And the way you said that, because it's always. I mean, I think people are always. What's the bottom line? Everybody's looking for the quick look. The quick. 

15:22
Jay Ferruggia
Exactly. 

15:23
Dr. William Seeds
Quick. And it just. It doesn't happen that way. 

15:25
Speaker 5
Yep. 

15:26
Dr. William Seeds
And that's where I loved where you talked about the giving people, that you called it a addiction and actually that they're addicted to the next. What the next step is. It's actually a behavioral process that's happening of where they're getting a reward mechanism with dopamine. 

15:46
Speaker 5
Yep. 

15:47
Dr. William Seeds
And it's a. It's a train. It's. You're training a behavior that becomes a habit. It's really interesting and a brilliant process that's become more illuminating now. A better understanding. Actually, that's happened because of GLP1s and some other things. But I just love how. I mean, I couldn't have scripted anything here. 

16:10
Matthew Seeds
It's that classic saying where you don't want to be focused on the goal. You Just want consistency to be the goal. And that's what you want to fall in love with. 

16:17
Jay Ferruggia
Right? Just the process and the habits and the passion. 

16:20
Dr. William Seeds
Right? Yeah, it's. And I guess I'm going to ask a question now, talking about all that. We all get into that place of Jay, where we're on a roll, we're doing great, and then we kind of get off kilter. Right. And we're not able to stay in that zone or where we're making all those gains. And all of a sudden some things change, and then you have some circumstances that are out of control and you feel like not doing something. And I'm always that I say to myself, what are you doing? You at least show up or at least try to make it there and then see what happens. And that even happens to me. I mean, you'd think that, you know, I got this passion. I gotta do this every day, or. No, I go through the same thing everybody else does. It's. 

17:15
Dr. William Seeds
It's a. It's a. It's work. Right. It's hard. 

17:19
Speaker 5
Yep. 

17:20
Jay Ferruggia
It happens. 

17:20
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

17:21
Jay Ferruggia
But it's just. I believe in doing what you said, just showing up, maintaining the habit. A lot of people, their training is for their sanity, which I get it. You know, it's like iron therapy. Not saying that it fixes everything, but. 

17:34
Dr. William Seeds
Jay, I have these two. Yeah, it's therapy. 

17:37
Jay Ferruggia
Yeah. 

17:38
Dr. William Seeds
Let me tell you, it's. 

17:39
Matthew Seeds
It's. That's why I know you've preached before that you know, the optimal training time is in the morning. I do it after work. I kind of need to do it after work. So when I log off, I go to the gym, like at 6, 7pm and to me, that's like, hey, I've built up all this stress over the course of the day. 

17:55
Jay Ferruggia
Sure. 

17:55
Matthew Seeds
Now let me go. Let me go work it out. 

17:58
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

17:58
Matthew Seeds
And it. I just feel a lot better that way. 

18:00
Dr. William Seeds
You can't. So when I say optimal, I. You never want to circumvent. If anytime anybody can get to the gym and do something that takes presence because they're. You'll want to see that. It's just if you're trying to really prioritize it and take the most out of what you can do, that's. That's why I'm around, to maybe help people like that. But I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Even if you. At midnight, sometimes you send messages on midnight in the gym, and I'm like, no one's there. 

18:31
Speaker 5
Yeah, right. 

18:31
Matthew Seeds
No one's There. It's great. Well, I mean. And you said staying consistent. I mean, just last week I had a day where I wasn't able to log off until like 9pm And I'm, like, looking at my tracker and I'm seeing the. It was like deadlift and squat and everything. And I'm like, oh, this is gonna suck. And I figured anything is better than zero. So I just went and every single thing I cut in half. So, like, I didn't build up all the way on all my pyramids. I didn't do all my. Some. Some of the stuff I did one long drop set or something. And that. It worked that day. 

19:04
Speaker 5
Yeah, that's what you got to do. 

19:05
Madison Lepore
You adapted. 

19:05
Jay Ferruggia
Yeah. You know, I was going to say something before you. I. You asked, what's your opinion of biohacking? And I like it. I think people get addicted to it, and they're always obsessively looking at their trackers and all, and it becomes another form of stress. Like, oh, my God, I didn't do this. I didn't do that. And I noticed a lot of Type A guys, clients of mine, where I'm like, you know, bro, maybe you should not use the Whoop for like a month. It's driving you insane. And it's driving me insane, you asking about it all day. You know what I mean? 

19:34
Matthew Seeds
We talked about this. I want to say in the very first. 

19:37
Dr. William Seeds
Jay needs his own chair here, guys. 

19:39
Matthew Seeds
We talked about this in the very first episode. And, you know, in a couple of weeks, we will be coming back and doing kind of a tech episode focused on things like the Whoop and the oura ring. I know you still have yours on. 

19:51
Dr. William Seeds
But what do I use it for, though? 

19:53
Madison Lepore
To find the toilet at night because. 

19:54
Dr. William Seeds
It has a little light on it. So I go. I go. I go like this, and it lights up and I can go pee. 

20:02
Jay Ferruggia
It's the best use. 

20:03
Matthew Seeds
I took mine off in November, so I haven't had it on for months. And the main reason is exactly that, you know, very beneficial for it to collect data for months and tell me my optimum amount of sleep trends and things. 

20:18
Jay Ferruggia
Yeah, exactly. 

20:19
Matthew Seeds
But once I figured that out, I found myself ignoring it because I'd wake up and I'm like, I feel great. And then the whoop's like, no, no. 55 sleep score. 

20:29
Jay Ferruggia
Exactly. 

20:30
Dr. William Seeds
How do you deal with that as a trader, when they come to you and say, oh, my. They. They believe more in their than you? 

20:37
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

20:37
Dr. William Seeds
Like, what is. What is that? 

20:39
Jay Ferruggia
Yeah, I, I honestly with a lot of type A guys who are OCD about it, I tell them we're not going to look at that for 90 days. I don't care about it. I used to, I mean, they would send me all the free stuff, the, the oura ring and the whoops and I would use them. And I think it's beneficial for tracking, like, let's see if this lifestyle change makes a difference. But year round I don't. And it's funny, we're talking about energy at the beginning. I don't use it anymore because I wake up in the morning and my decision is not to be a little bitch and then I go attack the day and win the day. I don't give a fuck what my thing on my screen says. I'm gonna have energy and dominate no matter what. 

21:11
Dr. William Seeds
Can we give Jay two chairs? 

21:13
Jay Ferruggia
Yeah. 

21:13
Matthew Seeds
Yeah. 

21:14
Dr. William Seeds
This is awesome, Jay, Keep going. 

21:18
Matthew Seeds
The only thing I ended up doing is like at the end of every week I would just see what my trends were or something. But yeah, it just, eventually it felt like there was just a placebo effect going on. 

21:27
Jay Ferruggia
Right? Yeah, but again, I think it's beneficial, like if you hit, if you're eating a high carb diet and you go, I'm going to do keto for 90 days. Oh cool, let's see how that's impacting things and then we're good, get rid of it, you know, and I, I. 

21:38
Matthew Seeds
Definitely don't want to dump on what they are and the benefits they provide. And one thing I really liked was it would always warn me the second I was getting sick. Yeah, I really like that part. But yeah, I just started to hyper focus and that's my problem. That's not Whoop's problem. I started to hyper focus on the metrics and so I just like you're saying I had to take a break from it. 

21:56
Jay Ferruggia
Right. 

21:57
Dr. William Seeds
So you guys see the higher message here though, that Jay's go on how you feel? Well, he's not basing anything. So this is when I talk about, when I'm out there speaking and I've brought up your sector of healthcare. I consider you guys, you're the front line. You're working with people around the clock. You're getting, you're seeing responses, you're seeing failures, you're doing it. And then you get these people up there that read a fucking paper. Excuse me, Read a paper and act like an expert and say something that comes nothing close to the individual. And your. So you've developed this These concepts because you've seen what works and what doesn't. And, and that is nebulous to you because you know how to work with your people. 

22:50
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

22:51
Dr. William Seeds
To get results for what you're, what you're trying to do with each individual. And it's. What do I keep saying? It's, it's. You got to listen to the people that are doing it, not the people out there professing that they're the expert. Or, or I shouldn't say it that way. Do you know what I'm saying? 

23:10
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

23:10
Jay Ferruggia
I mean, I think that's one of the biggest problems with social media now is you have all these kids in their twenties who just parrot what the latest study says. And it's like, that's why they change their opinion every other week because the study will say something else. And if you don't, none of these people have any real world experience. So they'll ask me, what do you think of the latest study that shows xyz or the meta analysis is xyz? And I go, nothing. I go, I mean, we use studies to kind of like validate what we've done. Okay, cool. That's why it works that way. It doesn't work, but sometimes it'll say something that I think is completely opposite of what actually works in the real world. And it's 12 weeks on college kids. 

23:43
Jay Ferruggia
I'm not going to change something that I've done over 30 years. It's conversations with people like yourself, conversations with people who do what I do, and I've done it for at least 10 years and have real world experience. That's where you're going to learn the most. 

23:54
Dr. William Seeds
You know, and you've seen how it's different for a young individual or an untrained individual or an older individual or a female and a male. I mean, you have the real world experience of. Again, I hate to say this, but we learn more from our mistakes than we learn from our triumphs. And even today, I hope Jay will back me up on this. I still make mistakes in my training and you think I know everything and I overtrain and I get hurt and I got to work around it. It's continuous, right? 

24:32
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

24:33
Matthew Seeds
Well, whether it's patient protocols, whether it's clients in the gym, it seems like the main overlap is bridging that gap between research and application. 

24:42
Dr. William Seeds
Absolutely. 

24:42
Matthew Seeds
Because they don't make. Neither one makes sense on their own. 

24:45
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

24:45
Dr. William Seeds
So, yeah, Jay, how do you define, like, you know, the emphasis we kind of talk a lot about, you know, we realize that strength is an important part. Maybe not as much mass, but strength and mass comes with strength depending on how you do it. How do you pick the type of exercising you do? Like males, females, older people, younger people. Like, how do you gauge that as far as what you're trying to achieve in the strength part of like you kind of hinted a little bit with volume and things like that. What's your goal there? 

25:23
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

25:23
Jay Ferruggia
So there's major movement patterns that everyone should do. Where it gets individualized is the four of us might have different exercises within those movement patterns based on our anatomy or injury history, whatever. So you have vertical pushing and pulling, which would be like, you know, an overhead press and a pull down or a chin up. You have horizontal pushing and pulling, which like a bench press or a row. You have hinging would be like a deadlift variation. You have squatting, you have lunging, you have rotation, which you should train as you get older. And you have. What did I carrying? Like some kind of heavy loaded carry, like a farmer's walk or something like that. Everyone should do all of those. The only asterisk would be overhead pressing. A lot of people can't do just as you get older, whatever. 

26:03
Jay Ferruggia
You don't have the shoulder or the thoracic mobility to do it, but you could maybe do it not standing or seated, but maybe on like a 75 or 60 degree incline. So everyone should do some variation of that. That feels good on your joints, on your structure, you know, that doesn't cause inflammation and joint pain. It doesn't matter what top 10 list you see on the Internet. If it hurts, you don't do it. But we'll find something like you might be able to do a dumbbell press and you might be able to do a 60 degree machine and I might do a 75 degree incline barbell and you might be able to a standing barbell press, whatever. Right. It's what feels good. So that's the first thing is don't kind of just force feed something because it's on the top 10 list of exercises. 

26:44
Jay Ferruggia
Like, whereas everybody always hears it, on the top 10 list there's squat and deadlift. Right. But what kind of squat? 

26:49
Dr. William Seeds
Right. 

26:49
Jay Ferruggia
Not everyone can do a barbell back squat. That's going to hurt a lot of people. A lot of people just aren't made for that. You're not. Anatomy is not made for that even. What people don't consider is sometimes it's leg day and you're hurting your shoulders because you don't have the external rotation to hold a straight bar. And you're like, why are my shoulders and elbows hurting after leg day, it's like, maybe you should use a safety bar, maybe you should use a hack squat. Maybe you should do a goblet squat. So that's where it becomes really individual. 

27:13
Matthew Seeds
So as people are getting older and they're tailoring their approach using those different categories. On the flip side, as people are getting older, what are some of the recovery strategies then to keep them in the game? 

27:26
Jay Ferruggia
So again, just to react what I said it is making the right selection of all those exercises and parameters. If you're doing that, then sleep's always going to be first and foremost. Nutrition, anti inflammatory foods. Because if you're just eating junk food and you're causing a ton of inflammation, you're always going to feel like garbage, you know, so those are my top are really sleep and nutrition and then stress management. Get outside, get fresh air, get sun, you know, get a lot of steps in. And then we can move into the higher level stuff, you know, like the sauna, the cold plunge, the peptides, all those kind of things. 

27:58
Matthew Seeds
So you've moved into the higher level stuff as your career has progressed, but as you've transformed yourself not just physically, but mentally over the years, what sort of mindset shifts have you found in yourself as you've evolved, as you've learned more? 

28:15
Dr. William Seeds
Oh, that's a good one. 

28:17
Jay Ferruggia
Career wise or just personally or wherever I want to go with it. 

28:20
Matthew Seeds
Let's do all of them. You know, he would go on for 10 minutes answering all of them. So you got plenty. 

28:24
Jay Ferruggia
Yeah, so when I was 36, I'm 50 now, so 14 years ago, I moved from Jersey to L. A to reinvent myself and become a totally different person. I was super shy, quiet, insecure, socially awkward, didn't have a ton of friends, and I'm still that way. I wanted to become someone different. I knew I couldn't do it in my own hometown where I grew up. And I remember reading this Henry Rollins quote, talking about that. So I was like, let me move as far away as I can and start over and like almost create this new character. Because it's hard. If everyone around you has known you for 36 years, you're like, no, I'm change you like, no, you're not. So I moved here to give myself that opportunity and push myself out of my comfort zone. 

29:02
Jay Ferruggia
I took stand up classes, I took improv at Second City for a Couple of years. 

29:06
Matthew Seeds
Improv. 

29:07
Jay Ferruggia
Yeah. Game changer for sure. 

29:09
Dr. William Seeds
Awesome. 

29:09
Jay Ferruggia
And just continually push myself and wanted to be. What's that? 

29:14
Dr. William Seeds
Stressors adapting. Like exactly what he's saying. It's amazing. 

29:18
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

29:18
Jay Ferruggia
And just push myself all the time to where I would normally be the quiet shy guy. And look at my phone if I'm in an elevator. I'm gonna start talking to you. I'm gonna make a compliment. I'm gonna make fun of your schmedium shirt. You know what I mean? I'm gonna, I'm just breaking balls if I'm at Whole Foods checking out. I'm gonna read your name tag and start talking to you. You know, so I just force myself. And then I was once saying that I always kind of repeat all the time is act your way into thinking differently. 

29:46
Jay Ferruggia
Because I think so much of the self help industry is like I gotta read a million books and I gotta go do ayahuasca and sit around with people dressed like Obi Wan Kenobi in the jungle and do all these chants and it's like, no, no, you need to act your way into thinking differently. You don't need all these things. Like you can just flip the switch. And what would the most elite, idealized version of you do? If there's a camera on you, if there's a documentary crew on you from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed, what would that person do? It's not going to take you six months to do that. It could take you six seconds if you just decide. 

30:16
Jay Ferruggia
And then as I was going through that, at the end of each day I would review it. Just like you'd review your training log or your KPIs in business. Right. I'd be like, what did I do well today? What was out of my comfort zone where I defaulted going back into my comfort zone. What mistakes did I make? What could I learn? And then just keep applying it each day to become now where I'm unrecognizable to the, you know, my 36 year old version of myself. 

30:39
Dr. William Seeds
So you move down here, especially the. 

30:42
Madison Lepore
Journaling, like they do feel like that's so important. But it's hard for people to journal and not be so hard on themselves. So including the good along with the bad, I think that's very important for people to know. 

30:55
Speaker 5
Yeah, yeah. 

30:56
Jay Ferruggia
It's weird because most people go to the gym knowing that you can make progress. You would start a business knowing that you can make progress. You'd start playing a sport or an instrument, knowing that you can make progress. But people are like, my personality is my personality. This is how I've always been. My family's this way. Maybe I grew up negative, glasses half empty. But you can change any of that. You can change the way you talk, you could change the way you walk, you could change your posture, you could change everything about you. Most people just don't try, you know. 

31:20
Madison Lepore
It'S work they don't want to do. 

31:21
Jay Ferruggia
Exactly. Yeah, but you did the work. 

31:23
Matthew Seeds
So you moved out here to put yourself in a new environment. But environments aren't static. As stressors pop up. What are some things that you've done to continue to operate efficiently or to kind of, you know, operate within the stress that you're seeing on a day to day basis? 

31:38
Jay Ferruggia
The first thing I do is realize that anyone, every single person's an influencer, although I hate that term. But you influence the behavior of everyone around you, either positively or negatively. You walk into a room, you either raise the temperature, you cool it down. There's no negative. Everyone's watching you, everyone's learning from you. Like I always say, you can learn from someone who maybe has the worst qualities, the worst social skills, whatever. I'm still going to learn, like, oh, I should never do that. Maybe I do that sometimes, right? That you can learn from everybody. And you're also influencing everyone around you. So if everyone around you drinks all the time and eats fried food and all of a sudden you go on this mission and don't, there's going to be the resistance. Like, why are you not drinking? 

32:13
Jay Ferruggia
Why are you not eating this? But then what happens? 60 days later they start going, yo, can you tell me how you're doing that? Like, what are you doing? Right? So you're always. So I put the pressure on myself to be the leader, to be the positive influence for everybody. Like right now, for example, it's WrestleMania season. I have a lot of guys getting ready for WrestleMania. And as much as I wanted to have dessert and cheat meals, last night at this party, I was like, all my guys are dieting so hard right now. I can't do that. You know what I mean? And so that's kind of. I just accept that responsibility every day. And then having daily non negotiable. So like, confidence in that and that powerful mindset is a skill. It's a decision that you make to do that. 

32:49
Jay Ferruggia
But it's a skill. It's a learned skill like anything else. And so the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning Is I play my dominate playlist. So I first heard hip hop in 1983, and I'm an insecure little fat kid in Jersey that always got picked on, always got beat up. And I hear LL saying I'm bad, and I hear DMC saying I'm the king of rock. And I was like, oh, man, this is amazing. So to this day, I play braggadocio hip hop all morning, continually reprogramming myself because it's the same thing as showering or whatever, right? Like, you have to do that every single day to believe in myself. I play the Superman theme song to believe I'm superhuman. You know, I do all these things and then I have a daily non negotiable. 

33:29
Jay Ferruggia
It's like, that's why training is so important. Even if you're not making progress, you're still going during those times, right? Sticking to your diet, getting enough sleep, getting 10,000 pages, getting 10,000 steps. I read 10 pages a day and I get seven plus hours of sleep. Like, those are my six daily non negotiables that I will not break if I'm on the road. Like, I was just speaking at a thing in D.C. For Salesforce, and at the end of the day, I'm in that room all day. I only had 3,000 steps. It was freezing out. I was like, oh, my God, I got to go with 7,000 steps at 10. It was freezing. But I did it. I just started calling my friends and everything and got the steps. 

34:01
Jay Ferruggia
Because what happens is if you break your non negotiables, your confidence and self esteem goes down, then you can't trust yourself. And then all of a sudden, you guys can't trust me. Right? And it's like, maybe it seems like nothing, but you're like, I don't feel as good. I'm kind of bummed out that I didn't do what I told everybody else to do, you know? So it's like, what are you doing when the camera's not on? 

34:20
Matthew Seeds
You know, One of the big things that's been getting more and more popular is meditation. Right. And it almost sounds like that music playlist is your affirmation. 

34:29
Speaker 5
Yes. Yeah. 

34:30
Matthew Seeds
I love that. 

34:31
Speaker 5
Yep. 

34:32
Matthew Seeds
Speaking of, you know, lifestyle changes and environment changes and WrestleMania, what do you think of John Cena turning heel? 

34:40
Jay Ferruggia
I thought it was top two along with Hulk Hogan. I thought it was the greatest thing. It was amazing. I had that conversation a few days with a friend. I was like, could see in a turn. No. And I never ask any of My clients or friends. Because I want to just be a fan for sure. 

34:52
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

34:52
Jay Ferruggia
I never want to know. Sometimes they'll tell me. Like, if it's something that I have to be there in person, they'll tell me. But I thought it was unbelievable. 

35:00
Matthew Seeds
I think anyone who's followed it for a long time has seen the interviews of him saying that, you know, in the past, they had discussed it and they had recorded his song and then they abandoned it. 

35:08
Jay Ferruggia
Right. 

35:09
Matthew Seeds
It almost felt like that was something that could never happen. 

35:11
Speaker 5
But yeah. 

35:12
Jay Ferruggia
Anyway, it was mind blowing. 

35:13
Matthew Seeds
Yeah. 

35:14
Jay Ferruggia
Really shocking. 

35:15
Matthew Seeds
If there was only one piece of advice that you give somebody that, you know, starting today, this is something that you can add to your non negotiables when it comes to healthspan, when it comes to maybe not even necessarily the gym or peptide protocols, but just making sure that you're bettering yourself and reprogramming yourself to better every single day. What would you pick? 

35:42
Jay Ferruggia
I would just say. I mean, so. So more like esoteric or whatever. Like, just make your future self proud. 

35:50
Madison Lepore
I like that. 

35:51
Jay Ferruggia
With your decisions. 

35:52
Dr. William Seeds
Whoa. 

35:53
Madison Lepore
I like that. 

35:55
Dr. William Seeds
Like it. 

35:56
Matthew Seeds
I was going to like it. I was going to put it to a panel here what today's performance protocol. 

36:02
Dr. William Seeds
Would be, but I think that's it. It's called Workout with Jay. Oh, wake up. Wake up to the hip hop. No, it's just. 

36:10
Matthew Seeds
I think the performance protocol is something you said earlier that I've kind of made a mental note of. And it was act your way into thinking differently. 

36:17
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

36:17
Madison Lepore
And it's almost along like that. Fake it till you make it. Which I always say. But I feel it's a little different. 

36:23
Jay Ferruggia
Because you're not more like fake it till you become it kind of. 

36:26
Madison Lepore
Yeah. Yes, I like that. Fake it till you become it. 

36:28
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

36:30
Matthew Seeds
Not even fake it, be it until you become it. 

36:33
Jay Ferruggia
Right. 

36:33
Speaker 5
Yeah, yeah. 

36:34
Dr. William Seeds
Well, that. So, okay, so here's the next step. 

36:37
Madison Lepore
We're all adapting. 

36:38
Dr. William Seeds
Well, this is adapting, but this is quantum physics. This is actually intention. This is. These are things that we're going to see are real. They're. They're concepts now. But what. What you're saying is an intention is a manifestation that becomes a process or becomes real. There are. We can. I don't want to get off target here, but this is all about quantum physics. This is all about energy. This is all about how you can have a connection with someone and then feel something 2,000 miles away because there's been that interaction or that. That process of. It's a process that we can't comprehend yet. But this is real because when he's. So this is why this is great where I can put in some molecular things and talk about real things that you're. 

37:33
Dr. William Seeds
When you're, when he's in a process like this of his affirmations or whatever you want to call them. It's a real process for him. It's not a. You can't say it's. Well, you can say it's meditation, whatever you want to call it. But for Jay, it's his way of dominating the day. He told you it's today I'm going to dominate. Well, what he's doing is he's taking that, those, the aspects of how life and stress can. People just have no idea how much that life and stress itself plays a role every day when you wake up in creating these damage associated molecular patterns and how they can influence the immune system and other aspects of cell function and energy production. What you're doing is you're setting your clock mechanism. 

38:25
Dr. William Seeds
You're setting all of these photons and things that really are in sync, want to be in sync. You're oscillating a message in sync with your body. I know that sounds crazy, but if the people who know what I'm talking about with. Understand quantum physics and where it goes, this is what he's doing and it's real. It's real and it's. I think that's the beautiful part of all this is listen. All the basics you've just run through that. People just run right by it and don't see that. 

39:03
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

39:04
Dr. William Seeds
And I, I just so much appreciate this. I didn't expect any of this to be going this way and have you. I didn't, I just didn't expect all of this. This is just brilliant stuff and it's just. There's so many ways we collide, but yet we're all sending the same message. Right? 

39:21
Speaker 5
Yep. 

39:22
Dr. William Seeds
It's, it's. What's the message? Matt? 

39:27
Jay Ferruggia
I was just going to add. I always say that fitness is the cornerstone and the foundation of personal development. Because I do know. We probably all do know a lot of people who get hooked on personal development. Every week they're reading a new book, they're going to new seminar and you know, they're doing the stuff I make fun of and like going and chanting and all that stuff. But if I see them six to 12 months later, if you're not visibly better, it's not working. 

39:49
Madison Lepore
Yeah. 

39:49
Jay Ferruggia
There has to be an Expiration date. Like, I'm not saying you don't heal your trauma. Sure, heal your trauma. But I know people who are healing their trauma for 10 years. It's like, bro, what are you doing? Like, you're not getting anywhere. You're not making more money, you're not better, you're not, like, nothing's changed. Whereas if I take someone and say, train this way super hard for 90 days, diet super hard like this for 90 days, they lose 30 pounds, they're a completely different person. Right? So, so that's what I said. Like, that's where act your way into thinking differently is like you're acting by going to the gym, by getting enough sleep, by getting your steps, by eating the food. And then you learn to delay gratification. You know, you can trust yourself. Like all these things now you become someone totally different. 

40:27
Jay Ferruggia
That's why I always think you should do that before you get into the higher level, woo stuff, you know? 

40:32
Madison Lepore
Well, it's like, I'm confident in yourself. 

40:34
Dr. William Seeds
You got to build the foundation and make all that work. Right? 

40:37
Matthew Seeds
It's like the yin and the yang of exercise and sleep. Right? If all you did was exercise, you're not going to get any better. You need time to sleep, you need time to ruminate. I, I don't remember where I heard this from, but, you know, similar to what you're saying, you can go to these seminars, you can read every day, you can learn, but eventually all of that stuff just being bottled up here, it doesn't mean anything until you put it into action. So you have to kind of stop the learning phase and start the action phase. And then during the action phase, you'll get tired, you'll get a little bit worn out. You'll be like, I'm ready for that next step. 

41:11
Matthew Seeds
Go back into that learning phase, go back to sleep so that the next time you go into the gym, you're ready to keep getting better. 

41:16
Speaker 5
Yep. 

41:17
Dr. William Seeds
Damn. Awesome. 

41:19
Matthew Seeds
We're running over time. But, Jay, I want to thank you for joining us today. 

41:23
Jay Ferruggia
Oh, absolutely. Pleasure. Thank you, guys. Great. 

41:25
Madison Lepore
Thank you. 

41:26
Dr. William Seeds
It's been a real pleasure, Jay. And I love your messaging. And I can't say enough about what you're doing to change people's lives and that you're out there. I do. I think Matt and Maddie can support in my conferences and with healthcare professionals, I'm always talking about you guys because you're the real people doing it and my healthcare providers don't like hearing that because I'M telling. 

41:51
Matthew Seeds
That's not fair. Some don't like it, especially ones who let their ego maybe get a little. 

41:57
Dr. William Seeds
Bit in front of them. 

41:58
Jay Ferruggia
They're focused at the door. 

41:59
Matthew Seeds
Yeah, they're focused too much on the credentials, on the title and not on the. 

42:03
Dr. William Seeds
They don't like knowing that you guys are, you know, you. You're doing it. You're smarter, you're. Why wouldn't you be listening to people that have this knowledge? How about it's called collaboration. Why don't we work together to strive to make this environment better for everybody? Right? And that is. Can't say enough for what you guys are doing and how you're. You're changing and making it easier for us as healthcare providers to do our job. 

42:33
Jay Ferruggia
Thank you and I appreciate that, but right back at you. Like I always say, like, don't trust the fat doctor. And like, if you're not. If you're not. 

42:39
Matthew Seeds
You know what I mean? 

42:42
Speaker 5
If you. 

42:42
Jay Ferruggia
If you're not, you know, doing what you're doing, Living it, walking the walk. 

42:46
Dr. William Seeds
You know, isn't that what. Oh, my gosh, I feel so good now. Hey, screw those girls on the elevator. 

42:53
Jay Ferruggia
Exactly. 

42:54
Dr. William Seeds
Thanks, Jay. Yeah, I should have said I'm walking the walk. 

42:57
Jay Ferruggia
Exactly. 

42:58
Dr. William Seeds
I like it. 

43:00
Matthew Seeds
We're going to get into a completely different topic next week. We're going to be diving into cellular dysfunction, its link to chronic disease states, and might be touching a little bit on intermittent fasting, but we'll see. 

43:13
Dr. William Seeds
I could do intermittent fasting. 

43:15
Madison Lepore
Okay. 

43:16
Matthew Seeds
Well, Jay, again, thank you for joining us. Let everybody know. What do you have going on? 

43:21
Jay Ferruggia
My pleasure. And I have a podcast, Jay Faruggia show coaching program. I do my own live events. I speak all over the place. You can find most of that stuff at Jay Fit. My last name is long and hard to spell, so if you just go to J A Y Fit, find all. 

43:35
Matthew Seeds
The things there, you can find him@j fit. And you can find us next week here at the Redox Revolution. Thanks for joining us. 

43:43
Speaker 6
Please note that the information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult with your healthcare provider before making any changes to your health regimen, including starting new therapies, supplements, or treatments. While we discuss cutting edge research and advancements in cellular medicine, individual health needs vary and professional guidance is essential. By listening to this podcast, you acknowledge that neither Dr. Seeds nor the podcast team is providing personalized medical recommendations. 

44:12
Madison Lepore
Hey, we noticed a lot of you have tuned in to watch our first four episodes, but you haven't subscribed to it yet. So if you can just do us a favor and hit that subscribe button, that will help make our show infinitely better. And turn on your notifications so you can stay up to date with all of the latest cellular science coming out of Redox Revolution.