Essentials: How to Assess & Improve All Aspects of Your Fitness | Dr. Andy Galpin
In a Nutshell
Dr. Andy Galpin outlines nine physiological adaptations from exercise—skill, speed, power, strength, hypertrophy, muscular endurance, anaerobic capacity, VO2 max, and long-duration endurance—and provides practical field tests for each. Key benchmarks include a broad jump equal to your height, dead hang of 30+ seconds, FFMI ≥20 for men/≥18 for women, 25+ push-ups for men/15+ for women, and VO2 max ≥35/30 mL/kg/min for men/women. The main takeaway is to identify and correct your weakest metrics once per year so no single deficiency caps overall fitness progress.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health, physical health, and performance. Andrew Huberman, professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine, introduces Dr. Andy Galpin, an expert on physical training and optimizing for specific goals and outcomes.
When it comes to exercise, people generally have two major goals in mind. Goal number one is achieving some sort of appearance. This includes wanting to be big, not too big, or lean. There is an aesthetic component to almost everybody. The second goal is functionality, which can mean being better at strength, mobility, or having energy throughout the day. The key is understanding where to focus exercise training to achieve both immediate goals and long-term wellness.
The physiological adaptations from exercise can be bucketed into nine areas:
- Skill or technique - Running more effectively, practicing skills like shooting a ball, swinging a golf club
- Speed - Moving at higher velocity or with better rate of acceleration
- Power - Speed multiplied by force
- Force or strength - Maximum amount of force you can produce one time
- Muscle hypertrophy - How big your muscle is
- Muscular endurance - How many repetitions you can do of a movement (typically 5-50 rep range)
- Anaerobic capacity - Maximum amount of work in 30-45 seconds up to 120 seconds of all-out work
Sign in to read the full notes
Get access to AI-generated notes, topic timestamps, and more.