Michael Easter

Im there anticipating some reenactment of Desert Storm. But what I get is closer to Desert Om. Close your eyes to begin this meditation, Horton says. I want you to focus on the sensation of the breath. When thoughts arise, notice them without judgment. And then she occasionally reminds the group to feel the breath or notice and let go, until after 15 minutes she announces, Times up.

WARM DOWN Some of the SOFLETE guys stretch it out after a workout.

Were at a weekend retreat held by SOFLETE, a fitness-content company owned by Special Operations personnel that isnt following the long-held narrative of how people in the military, first responders, and other active men and women should train, live, and do their jobs. Army Rangers and Green Berets, Marines, firefighters, police, and SWAT members, along with an accountant, an electrical lineman, a roughneck, and others: Most of the 25 people here have taken lives, saved lives, and undoubtedly seen some shit. Together this group is seeking something like enlightenment: zenning out, exploring the psychedelic landscape of Joshua Tree National Park, and speaking the capital-T truth about the state of being an elite serviceman or -woman in 2019.

Each of them landed in the Mojave after a bout of burnoutfrom too many stressful deployments or hours on duty or patrol; from military-style beatdown workouts and the nagging injuries that ensued; from the idea that those who keep us safe, or even civilians simply interested in military culture, must be part of a stoic, tougher-than-thou caste. The SOFLETE peeps are here doing something about that burnout. But they also know that the feeling extends far beyond the Mojave. Which is why theyre also scaling up their efforts on various media channels and through a training appto bring the next generation of Special Operations training and tactical thinking to the masses.

CALL IT THE military-fitness complexand its now at industrial scale. Its the thousands of books, podcast episodes, Instagram feeds, seminars, and fitness programs that promise to reveal the physical and mental magic that makes Special Operations warriors so tough. The space is dominated by testosterone-emboldened vets and brands whose messages are basically this: The answer to all your problems is to adopt a military mind-set, or mental toughness, which is loosely translated as grinding harder and longer than the next guy and never quitting or showing weakness.

As more troops and first responders have adopted these hard-line training and mind-set tactics, more and more of them have become mentally and physically beaten up and broken down. That can put them and their teams in dangerous positions, or just ruin their ability to live a healthy civilian life. The U.S. Army has publicly stated that injuries are a modern military epidemic, and a study funded by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory discovered that about 20 percent of its Spec Ops soldiers each year experience injuries that require medical attention. For every 100 soldiers, there are 25 annual injuries. The top cause of those injuries? Not bullets or IEDs. Exercise. Going too hard, too often. Team workouts consisting of ten-mile hikes while wearing 60-pound packs, followed by more pushups, situps, and flutter kicks than you can count, followed by whatever else a soldier does on his own in the gym, be it CrossFit, ultrarunning, or bodybuilding. In fact, the researchers say, 77 percent of these injuries could be avoided with improved injury-prevention programs.

Another problem, says Briones, is that many Special Operations guys are either bodybuilders, bodyweight ninjas, or pure endurance athletes. Theyre fitness specialists in a job that requires strength, speed, stamina, and mobilitythe capacity to drag a 200-plus-pound fallen comrade in full gear, sprint for cover during a firefight, ruck through the mountains to a mission point, or hold a covered-but-contorted shooting position in a sniper nest.

The military branches are fully aware that the way their personnel train isnt exactly optimal. And theyre working on itwith varying degrees of success. The Army says its on a bold mission to change its culture of fitness so that training transfers to combat more effectively, reduces the risk of injury, and improves soldier readiness and resiliency. Major General Lonnie Hibbard, who commands the U.S. Army Center for Initial Military Training, calls it holistic health and fitness. Its loosely described as physical fitness and performance enhancement, but also mental and spiritual fitness.

But whether the plan will make it out of the bureaucratic swamp and onto basesand then survive thereis anyones guess. In 2009, for instance, U.S. Special Operations Command funded the Armys creation of Thor3, a fitness program with its own facilities staffed by physical therapists, strength and conditioning coaches (poached from Team USA and elite sports programs), and sports nutritionists. It focused on optimizing the physical and mental conditioning of Special Forces operators and helping injured ones recover. It worked when it was implemented, improving fitness and reducing injuries, but it was slowly defunded and often neglected by untrained team leaders who didnt realize its value.

You also have the unseen scars, of course. The suicide rate among veterans is 50 percent greater than that of the general public, and police officers and firefighters are more likely to die by their own hand than in the line of duty. The New York Times recently reported that <a href="https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO06/20190508/109420/HHRG-116-GO06-Wstate-TanielianT-20190508-U1.pdf" id="14c66b3c-7c26-3ccd-a64d-d3a2a9e55c84"> more than 45,000 </a> veterans and active-duty service members have killed themselves in the past six years. That is more than 20 deaths a dayin other words, more suicides each year than the total American military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.

KIESEWETTER AND HINES talking training programs for the SOFLETE app.

Mental toughness isnt just doing more reps or miles than the next guy or getting through a selection course; its using smarter-not-harder approaches to fitness, even if that means you wont be the strongest, fastest, fittest-looking guy in the gym. Its knowing when to back down and take a day to take care of yourself. Its checking your intentions, and even asking for help and recognizing your vulnerability. As the branches slowly trudge forwardthe new fitness assessment test, for example, has been in the works for years and wont be ready for rollout until late 2020SOFLETE is filling a gap.

Now heavily meditated, the group rises from the seated position. Next up at the Mojave retreat: yoga. Nope, these SOFLETE dudes are not what you might expect from top military personnel. Surfers, hippies, hipsters, and snowflakes...who also happen to have body counts is how they describe themselves. But they may be onto something. The company began in 2015 with the intention of providing fitness programming exclusively for Special Operations guys. For them, the stakes of military fitness are much higher than looking cool on the Gram. The wrong fitness program can prevent servicemen and -women from advancing past a Special Ops selection course, stalling their career, or, even worse, put them in harms way on the battlefield.

SOFLETE is rethinking warrior fitness with sane fitness programming served with a side of woo, which just may be what military men and women need to be better at their jobs. Yeah, I meditate. Yes, I do yoga. Yes, I do all these things that some people may associate with femininity or something, says Brian Hueske, 38, a career Green Beret whos built like a grizzly bear and who now also works for SOFLETE. But Im doing this stuff to maintain performance. At the end of the day, Im doing this stuff because it makes me better at killing bad people.

Modern-day Rambos with a softer side and no pretension to badassery? Could my experience in the desert have all been some strange hallucination? I needed to find out.

AND SO IT is that a few weeks later I find myself at SOFLETE headquarters in Durham, North Carolina. In the desert, I saw the restorative side of SOFLETE. Now Im about to experience how the company builds elite war fighters and glean insights into its special marketing sauce thats part rah-rah inspiration, part parody of bro science. That it took just four years for the company to go from a single workout shared by PDF to a 6,000-square-foot building and a reach of 2.5 million people each month speaks to the efficacy of SOFLETEs workouts and the thirst for military-themed merch.

There are eight of us performing a mobility warmup on the 50-foot strip of turf that runs through SOFLETE HQ, which is part no-expenses-spared CrossFit-style gym, part content-creation studio, and part office. By the 2010s, the SOFLETE brain trust had started to realize that the message of the military-fitness complex was all wrong. Between deployments, each of them was running an elite gym, all looking for the fitness sweet spot where a warrior is optimized to performat a moments notice, over an entire career. Special Operations guys never know when theyre going to have to go on a mission, says Doug Kiesewetter, 38, an Army Special Forces weapons sergeant and partner at SOFLETE. Any day could be the Super Bowl. So imagine Tom Brady doing a burner workout and endless miles of rucking with an 80-pound pack every day leading up to the Super Bowl. How would he play? Not great, right? But thats essentially what many other military- fitness companies were and still are asking from their users.

SLED WORK Jamie Christenson and James Ramsey train at SOFLETE HQ.

In 2011, Id spent the year doing a popular military athlete program, says Hueske as he adjusts the settings on a camera hell use to capture video that SOFLETE will post to its social-media channels and website, dieliving.com. The site covers fitnessy topics like how to avoid boot-camp injuries and how to eat for performance, as well as mind-set stuff like dealing with failure, the trials of coming home from deployment, and grappling with the badass identity that society forces on military guys. Every day, Id do an hour of 80-pound sandbag Turkish getups, followed by these crazy high-intensity workouts. I always felt crushed, but thats what I was told would work. It didnt.

We had a training mission to raid an enemy compound, and to do that we had to climb up this huge hill in full kit with all of our breaching equipment, which is like 90 or 100 pounds of gear, he says. By the time we reached the top, I was smokedand the actual mission hadnt even started.

THE SOFLETE CREW training at their HQ in Durham, North Carolina. From left: Ryan Peters, Christian Hines, James Ramsey, Hueske, and Kiesewetter.

For someone like a pro CrossFit athletewho can eat perfectly, sleep eight hours a night, get massages, and all thatregular all-in workouts can be effective. But military guys typically eat shitty food, get shitty sleep, and have shitty access to recovery practices (no ice baths in Tora Bora). Pounding away at balls-to-the-wall workouts eventually hurt Hueskes back. So then I was forced to recover, he says while snapping photos of the group performing the warmup routine that will mobilize our legs, hips, and shoulders, three areas that military personnel commonly injure. During Hueskes rehab, a colleague called him aside and, in the furtive tone you might use when confessing to another man that you like to sing along to Taylor Swift when youre driving to work, said, This training youre doing...I know you think its cool, but youre totally wrong. Heres what you need to do....

The guy began explaining that how hard youre dragging your skull across the dirt does not correlate with a workouts efficacy, says Hueske. It only sets you up for injury and crap performance. A military strength coach gave him some programming that ticked a lot of fitness boxes and pushed Hueskes limits but also stressed recovery and improving his mobility. I was working out less, Hueske says. I felt like I was sandbagging, but I stayed the course.

Soon after, he was sent on another training mission. It was a six- or seven-hour infiltration where we were carrying heavy gear through the woods slowly and deliberately, he says. When we arrived at our destination to start the mission, I still had 95 percent left in the tank. It was a meathead revelation. The other SOFLETE guys had similar come-to-fitness-Jesus moments. Briones was once involved in a four-hour firefight in Afghanistan when a burned-out team member went down with heatstroke in hour three, putting the entire team in danger as they tried to evacuate him.

I watched my peers break themselves from overtraining and spend years trying to rehab while still needing to go to war, says Kiesewetter. Running patrols in Afghanistan and Iraq, theyd walk with a hitch in their step, fail to turn on speed and power when they needed it most, and just generally move like dudes a decade older. Christian Hines, the SOFLETE employee who models many of the exercises in the app and who came from the Armys 82nd Airborne, watched as many of his teammates were removed from their daily duties and training because they injured themselves trying to one-up the next guy in some timed workout or deadlifting session.

Now warmed up, were moving on to a strength phase. Well do three sets each of back squats, box jumps, and bench presses. The squat-and-jump combo leverages a phenomenon called post-activation potentiation, which research shows may give you a boost in strength and power.

Two of the cofounders of SOFLETE, whom well call Bill and Greg (they wished not to be named due to their roles in the military), saw the same issue of overkill. The original idea for SOFLETE was inspired by a peer of mine, says Greg. He was perpetually hurt from military fitness programs, which is so common among SOF guys.

HIGH-INTENSITY SWINGERS The SOFLETE team doing a kettlebell workout near their HQ.

In 2014, Greg went on a deer-hunting retreat with a nonmilitary friend named Aron Woolman, a successful Wall Street trader then in his mid-30s. Theyd spent the weekend discussing the problems with military fitness programming, and after talking with Woolman, an astute business mind, Greg decided they should do something about it.

So Greg, Bill, and Woolman did. They saw an opportunity in fitness plans that prepare men and women for Special Operations selection camps, which have low pass rates. Most other programs mimicked the hell of selection, following the train how you fight mantra, says Greg. Think daily miles of heavy rucking and anything else that sounded militaryish and awful. But while they zigged, Greg and Bill zagged. If you throw on a 70-pound ruck and walk for 12 miles, you get tired pretty quick, says Greg. Then every step is sloppy, on uncontrolled terrain, while youre weighted down, so the potential to twist an ankle or knee is extremely high. If that happens, there go your chances of passing selection.

Gregs and Bills experiences at selection told them that a better strategy is to strengthen all the muscles involved in rucking and to build an aerobic base. If you can back-squat 400 pounds and run a respectable ten-mile time, youre going to do well in the ten-mile ruck run, says Greg. The three men put together a PDF of a selection-prep program, which included lots of military-specific strength and conditioning fundamentals but very little heavy rucking, and tossed a brand on the file: SOFLETE, a combination of SOF, the acronym for Special Operations Forces, and athlete. Then they uploaded it to the Internet.

The PDF took off, says Bill. It got a shocking number of guys through selection camps. We were running SOFLETE as a small passion project, but by October of 2015 we realized that we should focus on running it as a business, says Woolman, a laid-back type who acts as the CEO and mom of the company. The othersKiesewetter, Briones, and Huesketook notice, everyone started talking, and SOFLETE gained speed.

That initial PDF has evolved into more than 100 different programs based on your goalbuilding strength, endurance, or muscle, for example, or prepping for a huntall accessible on the SOFLETE app for $34 a month, making them easy to do on bases and in gyms around the world. They tick all the boxes a war fighter needsraw strength, explosive power, all-day endurance, and killer speedwhile sneaking in, through nutrition coaching and extended mobility warmups and cooldowns, the never-say-die durability that helps modern servicemen and -women survive deployment after deployment and thrive in kinetic modern warfare.

FLIP OUT Hines celebrates the end of the workout.

Durability is critical for todays Spec Ops personnel, as America increasingly leans on its elite war-fighting teams. Special Operations are now active in over 90 countries, and members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have even testified that the constant deployments are taking a physical and mental toll.

SOFLETE workouts are hard, and we encourage people not to flip the idiot switch, but the recovery components are key, says Kiesewetter, the funny brother of the group, who, thanks to his sleeves of military-style tattoos, appears in many SOFLETE videos. This idiot-switch-free approach to holistic fitness training is why this band of irreverent servicemen has amassed a hell of a following. The company has grown 2,000 percent since the end of 2015.

Each training program is like a symphony, every workout building to a larger goal. The 12-week Juggernaut program, for example, stresses developing muscle and power. It does this via compound lifts like the deadlift, back squat, and power clean. But it doesnt neglect durability and stamina. Juggernaut has plenty of mobility and accessory work, plus biweekly days featuring sessions such as eight sets of 400-meter runs at a slow pace. Harmonized programs are common in professional sports, but not every military-fitness company has caught on.

Each SOFLETE program goes through the meathead brain trust: six combat-experienced Special Operations personnel who have an alphabet soup of fitness credentials. This hive mind sets them apart. Many other military-style programs are written by a single guy. And that guy may be a fitness pro who has no military background, which oftentimes causes him to measure success by a servicemans numbers in the gym, rather than his performance at war.

DOWNWARDLY MOBILE The crew doing a yoga-inspired cool down.

That gym-based mind-set is dangerous. Because the more you push your performance limits, the greater the toll your training takes on your body. SOFLETE prioritizes durability over absolute performance, says Kiesewetter. Having enough fitness and durability is what allows you to stay out of harms way mission after mission. With SOFLETE programming, youre probably going to have to give up being the absolute biggest, fastest, strongest guy in your unit, says Hueske. But you will be third or fourth best in all those metrics over 20 years, while the guys who are number one keep rotating because they get injured.

The group is cranking out the strength exercises before we move on to a stamina phase, which will entail doing as many rounds of 1,000-meter rows, 400-meter runs, and 400-meter farmers walks as possible in 13 minutes. Beyond the SOFLETE brain trust, theres John Warren, an Army sniper; Mike Crellin, a police officer in Houston; Nolan Bastien, a firefighter in Indianapolis; and Phil Sussman and Dave Ploch, of different wings of Army Special Operations. These men are the converted. SOFLETE programming helped with the back pain that Bastien, 39, had due to subpar exercising programs and overtraining. Thats made him, his team, and the public safer. Im a more functional part of my crew, he says.

The apps nutrition programming helped Crellin, 37, lose 80 pounds and Warren, 30, eat well consistently. The app calculates your carb, fat, and protein needs based on your size, goal, and activity level. Not into counting macronutrients? Cool. Who is? The app also spits out a days worth of recipes that fit exactly into your macros. The recipes are complexfor example, pork chop with veggie-loaded orzo or chicken with sweet-potato mash and roasted sproutsbut if youre kitchen-phobic, each week youll prep meals on Sunday and eat the same meals every other day.

When the workout ends, we form a sweaty circle around Sussman, who found yoga after an armored-vehicle accident sidelined him with pain and depression. He leads us through a series of poses that hit areas that tend to be particularly tight in war fighters and desk jockeys alike. Ploch digs the yoga part. He enlisted in 1996, has been deployed 14 times, and may be seeing more. I now know I have to work out smarter to keep mobile and flexible, he says. SOFLETE stuff is keeping me in the fight.

WE COMPLETE THE LIFTING part of the workout and now the gym is functioning as a full-fledged content studio, like Peloton but with less spandex and spinning. Im curious to finally learn what the heck the logowhich is stamped on everything from bumper plates and med balls to T-shirts and water bottlessymbolizes. First, though, Hueske has set up lighting and is interviewing Bastien for a series on how first responders have benefited from SOFLETE. Were trying to reach out to more guys with jobs like those, says Kiesewetter. And average guys. Theyll do that by holding more events like the one in Joshua Tree and by expanding the app.

SOFLETE is still a young company experiencing growing pains. The current version of the app, for example, offers a ton of programs, and its not clear how, say, one 80-plus-day strength program differs from the 14 other programs. In January, it plans to launch the app 2.0, which will include a more streamlined process of putting users into the programs they need. Youll be able to link it to an Apple watch, and your training, recovery, and nutrition will automatically scale based on recovery metrics from the watch. Anyone can comply with a three-month exercise program, says Kiesewetter. The challenge is how to make them comply with recovery practices as well.

Hueske, the brands media maven, elaborates. The word yoga has so long been synonymous with, like, leaf eating, he says. To get guys in my unit to do stuff like this, wed call it tactical stretching. So it is with SOFLETE, which often has to shape its message for testosterone-addled men who would perhaps rather not tread the same workout territory as their girlfriend.

We move off the turf to some couches. Im spent and feel like Ive put in hard work, but Im confident Ill be able to walk down the stairs tomorrow. I sip a shake of SOFLETE Fruit Hoops cereal-milk-flavored protein powder and water as the guys talk about SOFLETE products. We wanted a protein powder that tastes like the milk thats left after you eat a bowl of cereal, says Kiesewetter. They also sell a cinnabun-flavored protein powder and a melatonin, chamomile, and lavender nightcap called Teddy Bear Night Night.

KIESEWETTER AND HINES shoot video for the SOFLETE app.

Each guy is wearing some version of a SOFLETE T-shirt, which all feature the brands logo: a spade with a skull and two crossbones. The logo is also prominent in the brands dieliving.com stories. But what is it, exactly? An homage to the death cards that American troops would leave on Vietcong theyd killed in battle during the Vietnam War.

When that first PDF dropped, they shared it with friends and family on Facebook, says Woolman, where the logo and the mission caught the eyes of service personnel, law enforcement, first responders, and people interested in military fitness. We have just enough of the badass imagery to get people in the door, like the logo, and our military backgrounds probably help, says Kiesewetter. But then once people are in, its like, Hey, heres the yogawe give them the workouts and lifestyle advice they need.

The vernacular of the instruction is also uniquely direct. Take, for example, a recent Instagram video about correct pullup form. Caption: Were here to help if your pullups are hot garbage. Or the caption of a similar video about squats: If your front squat is jank as fuck you need to watch this video.

But sometimes that marketing humor borders on offensive. Take the description of a SOFLETE camo hat: Whether youre two steppin through Compton or playing IED hop scotch outside of Kabul, this snapback will drop every pair of panties within a six block radius. SOFLETE also once sold a cologne called Flex Offender. I spent two nights on the couch after my wife found out about that one, says Woolman.

While SOFLETE is making real progress with fitness, its not always as on point when it comes to helping break down the stereotype that military guys arent the most culturally sensitive creatures. Some of that is the brand trying to maintain authenticity, writing product descriptions that mimic how Spec Ops guys talk in a team room. And some of the blowback may be a consequence of a way-too-woke culture that has an amplified voice in social media. Woolman says SOFLETE is evolving and that the more offensive stuff is held over from the beginning of the brand. And I will say weve always been equal-opportunity offenders.

KIESEWETTER AND HINES prep a SOFLETE podcast with Hueske and Peters.

KIESEWETTER AND HINES prep a SOFLETE podcast with Hueske and Peters.

Its a theme Kiesewetter takes up. We all learned that that humor is a way to avoid uncomfortable situations, he says, speaking of the awkwardness that not only a trained killer but any person with a Y chromosome might feel opening up to the softer side of life. Hueske adds, And we just dont take ourselves too seriously. Lots of other militaryish companies do. They hope this makes SOFLETE videos and other content more accessible.

Theres an uncanny valley of how badass someone is in the military, says Hueske. In my career, Ive found that the most badass guys whove done the hardest stuff will never tell you about it. They never want to be recognized as badass. As we sit around laughing, Gogginss book, Cant Hurt Me, comes up, and its message doesnt resonate. Ploch (who, as a reminder, has deployed 14 times) smiles and says, You can get hurt in this job.

In 2017, a venture-capital firm approached SOFLETE. The team met a few Patagonia-vest-wearing finance types. Big money was on the lineenough to make SOFLETEs founders rich. They had just invested in another military brand, and they asked us, What are you guys against? says Woolman. We didnt understand the question. So they said, Well, are you against hipsters, liberals, people for gun control? What are you against? We said, Were not against anything. Were for helping people, for being authentic, and for pushing your personal boundaries and living your best life.

And then the SOFLETE guys all went to practice yoga.

DAWN'S RAYS ARE creeping west across the Mojave, crawling up Joshua trees and barrel cacti, as a group of U.S. Special Operations warriors sit cross-legged, all lined up and scanning the dry horizon. These exquisitely tattooed, overmuscled rogues have descended upon this desert from across the nation. Alongside them are a handful of first responders and a few civilians. Chests slowly rise and fall as each person inhales and exhales the cool, dry air. One among their ranks ...

The Spec-Ops Guys Behind The App Transforming Military Fitness

Dorsey is another high-profile face in a swelling movement of self-proclaimed top performing men for whom when to eat is now just as important as what to eat. A-Rod, Jimmy Kimmel, Hugh Jackman, and Chris Hemsworth have all done intermittent fasting. Not to mention average guysfasting books are ticking up the sales ranks of Amazon, and WeFast, an online network of people who connect over their lack of meals, has around 20,000 members.

Going anywhere from 12 to 72-plus hours without a single calorie, these guys believe, is the ideal diet strategy for the demands of the modern world. Intermittent fasting allows humans to get more shit done in less time (Its like time slows down, Dorsey said of his first long fast) while also helping them live longer or cut weight. For some its a lifestyleshort fasts every daywhereas others tackle longer fasts weekly, monthly, or annually to capture some magic or to reset after a bout of unhealthy eating or drinking.

But not everyone agrees that theres any magic or benefits to be had. Not everyone even agrees on what fasting is. Intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating means eating all of your daily calories within a specified window. What that window should be, however, is up for grabs.

Responses to Dorseys fasting regimen came fast and hard, with people accusing him of both promoting and suffering from disordered eating, and of peddling pseudoscientific nonsense. Except he and other fasters arent onto anything new. Theyre just more guys in a long line of people who have used time away from food to enter a new level of religious experience, biological revision, and physical metamorphosis, says Stanford researcher Adrienne Bitar, Ph.D., author of Diet and the Disease of Civilization. Abstinence is having a moment across the culture and lifestyle boardyou probably know someone doing a fast in an effort to earn their way to something thats missing. Like control. Detoxification, whatever that means. Self-improvement. A new way to be righteous. Or proof that theyre stronger than a sufferfest.

<h1> Is Intermittent Fasting Good for Your Health? </h1>

The Internet spoons out plenty of reported benefits of food fasts. But beyond participating in a social trend, is intermittent fasting good for you? Are people really getting anything out of it besides hunger pangs? We looked into the claims about what fasting could do for you.

The Claim: Fasting Gives You More Focus

What to Know Before Starting Intermittent Fasting

The facts: Fasting adopters say that going without food allows them to do more workand do it betterthan theyve ever been capable of, and its not just because they spend less time dealing with meals.

It may have something to do with adrenaline, sleep, or both. Youve fully metabolized your last meal after ten to 16 hours, depending on how much you ate. Thats when your body transitions from fed to fasted, releasing a symphony of hormones including testosterone, cortisol, and a host of lesser-known biochemicals that signal your body to mobilize and burn energy stores, says biochemist Trevor Kashey, Ph.D., founder of Trevor Kashey Nutrition. Your body generates energy by burning fat, while arousing it with adrenaline, which increases your alertness and focus.

Other research shows that people who stop eating a few hours before bed sleep better, says Satchin Panda, Ph.D., author of The Circadian Code. That could lead you to be more focused the next day.

The Claim: Fasting Makes You Healthier

The facts: From Hippocrates in 400 b.c. to American doctors in the 1800s, medical minds have theorized that fasting could cure diseases like cancer. These guys may have been too bullish, but some science suggests that fasting could have an effect on chronic disease.

It may reduce inflammation and improve blood-sugar and lipid levels. And studies from the University of Wisconsin and the National Institute on Aging found that calorie restrictiona form of fasting, since there are long hours between feedingsreduced heart disease and diabetes in monkeys. Restricted eating also lowered cancer rates in the monkeys, possibly by leveraging an evolutionary mechanism that cleans your body, Panda says. When your body flips into fasted mode, it doesnt burn its finest tissues for energy. We get rid of a lot of dead and damaged cells, he adds.

Is fasting much better for your overall health than a normal, balanced diet? Probably not. Fasting doesnt make you healthy so much as overeating can make you unhealthy, says Kashey.

The Claim: Fasting Helps You Lose Weight

The facts: Wars are raging over which intermittent fasting diet is best, but the research community does agree on one thing: If you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight. Because the average person in the U.S. eats three meals a day, plus snacks, nixing some of these can cut calories and result in weight loss. Its another way to set parameters around eating, says MH nutrition advisor Chris Mohr, Ph.D., R.D. Lets say you used to have a beer or ice cream before bed. If you stop eating after 8:00 p.m., thats a big chunk of calories automatically removed from your diet. You just have to make sure you dont overindulge in your eating window. A recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that fasting diets and plans that had you simply eat fewer calories led to equal weight loss.

<h1> So What's the Best Way to do Intermittent Fasting? </h1>

I T WAS this past spring, and Jack Dorsey, the tech entrepreneur who cofounded Twitter and Square, was on biohacker Ben Greenfields podcast to divulge the newest tool that helped him work the long, demanding, intensely focused hours required to run not one but two billion-dollar companies. Fasting has been a new dimension, he said. For the past two years, I have only had dinner. The other thing Ive been playing with recently isIll go from Friday till Sunday. I wont have di...

Noon on a Thursday , my new friend Andy emails to ask if I want to join him and some pals at a local sports bar for dinner. Sure, I reply, figuring itd be a chance to meet some of the guys from the new gym I just joined. Plus, its all-you-can-eat prime rib night.

By 7:30, the five of us are sitting around a table devouring slabs of rare beef. Andy, I learn, is a financial guy. Arts a retired urologist, Scott is from the dental industry, and John was an IT specialist with a medical lab. They all look fit, especially Art, who has the long, lean build of a Michael Phelps.

I ask Art what he does in the gym. I dont go to the gym much anymore, he replies. I own 10 acres of land, and taking care of that is my workout.

You sure had a lot of workouts after that winter storm back in 2000, says John.

No, thats not the right year, Andy says. Sure it is, John insists. Soon everyone is bickering and pointing their forks to make points and trying to remember the chronology. These four gentlemen, all over age 60, some retired, will be my mentors for the week.

When my boss gave me the assignment to ditch my typically intense, CrossFit-type routine and start exercising with old folks, I was perplexed. What could the fitness editor of the worlds largest mens magazine possibly learn from guys who cant even remember the last big blizzard?

Would anyone like more prime rib? asks the waitress.

Yes, please, says Scott. Unbelievable, I think. Where do these old guys put it?

But when another massive strip of meat arrives, Scott takes two small bites and then asks for a to-go box. I always order an extra one to split with my dog, he says.

I signal the waitress. Maybe there are a few things I can learn from these guys.

I meet Andy at Steel Fitness Premier, a big-box gym attached to an orthopedic center. Andybald, muscular, gold crossis the mayor of the place. Hes shaking hands, saying hello, and catching up with everyone.

Health club mingling is a new experience for me. Usually when Im at the gym, I exercise with headphones and avoid eye contact.

But thats not an option when youre with Andy. As we work out, he introduces me to Jay, an orthopedist who sees me doing pull-ups and suggests I straighten my arm out in front of me, palm up, like Im asking for change, and with my other hand pull my fingers toward my body. That may help me avoid elbow pain from imbalances caused by doing too many reps, he says.

Smiling men with water bottles talking at gym

Next I meet a guy whos doing a kettlebell carry while holding the kettlebell bottom up. Doing that requires you to grip firmer and stabilizes your shoulder, he says.

Then Andy interrupts a 70-something guy whos exercising harder than anyone else, doing mountain climbers at a savage pace. But the man is happy to take a break and share his secret to exercising into old agebasically, picking activities that feel good. In other words, forget about trying to motivate yourself with workouts you dread or doing exercises you hear are great but that dont feel right. Just do what you enjoy.

Before I realize it, 90 minutes have passed. Ive only exercised for a third of that time, but maybe the mayor is onto something.

For one workout a week, I might unplug, forget the clock, and actually talk to people. The friendships I form and the tips I hear might keep me coming back for the long haul. In fact, researchers in Brazil found that people who interact with others during exercise are more likely to stick with it.

Hey, says Andy as were leaving the gym.You want to grab a burger?

<h1> 2 . Don't Make It Rocket Science </h1>

Im the kind of guy who plans and researches every little thing and can overcomplicate a trip to 7-Eleven for a gallon of milk. And since Im in the business, that tendency applies to my exercise. I once spent more time planning a workout than doing the workout.

Andy is telling me about his all-time favorite stationary bike routine. I pedal hard for a bit, then rest for a bit, he says, and I keep doing that for 30, 45, or even 60 minutes.

Ive been doing that workout for 35 years, he says, and Ive always called it exercise. Point taken. At the end of the day, its all just exercise.

One day Andy was early, as always, for the indoor cycling class, warming up on his usual bike, when in walked this new woman who started pitching a fit because there werent any bikes left.

If it were me, Id have avoided her gaze and stayed put. The idea of conceding a scheduled workout to someone who came late is as unthinkable as JFK telling Khrushchev, You know what? Take Florida.

So I was surprised to hear what Andy did.

I gave her my bike, he says. I figured, I take this class 300 times a year. Ill be okay ifI only take it 299 times.

Last year I flew home to spend Thanksgiving with my mom. That day I did burpees alone in the garage. My time with her is limited. In retrospect, I realize that it was one hour we could have spent reconnecting. This Thanksgiving, that wont happen.

My approach to fitness aligns with whats popular in the industry todayharder is better and improvement requires suffering. If this philosophy were a bumper sticker, it would read, The harder the workout, the harder the man. No pain, no gain.

Then I meet Clair. Hes 92 and goes to Steel Fitness Premier every day. Back in WorldWar II he was drafted into the military, and as a paratrooper he would jump out of planes to fight the enemy on the ground in Europe.

The idea of a gym workout causing suffering suddenly seems almost comical, and I start to feel about as tough as an overripe banana. Exercise can be uncomfortable, sure. It needs to be work. But my interpretation of sufferingquickly picking up heavy stuff in a temperature-controlled building next to a Wendysis anything but.

In fact, this smiling old man makes me wonder why Im really exercising so hard. In todays comfortable society (no small thanks to Clair and his military colleagues), do tough workouts fulfill some existential need that men have to prove theyre really men?

I mention this to my friend, MH fitness advisor David Jack. If you want to be tough like Clair, you can still exercise hard, but dont leave your strength in the squat rack, he says. There are probably 100 people within a 5-mile radius of your gym who need the physical strength you have. Do some good in the world. Look for some volunteer opportunities to help them.

Build strength not just for strengths sake, but to serve. New bumper sticker?

<h1> 5. Be Mindful of the Importance of Being Mindless </h1>

John used to take 13 indoor cycling classes a week676 a yearuntil the gym cut its schedule back. I initially think this is insane. So when he invites me to join him for a class, I hesitate. Understand that I use cardio machines primarily to warm up for and occasionally cool down from weight workouts, and Ive never spent more than 30 minutes on one. So I dont know what to expect.

John, who looks like an aging hippie with his white beard and spectacles, doesnt help by confessing that he listens to rare live Jefferson Airplane recordings to help fight the boredom. I think of one of the few JeffersonAirplane lyrics I know: ...and all the joy within you...dies!

But its not as bad as I expect. In fact, its more than just heart-boosting cardio. Its head-calming meditation. As I pedal, I focus on my breathing and turn inward, brain-storming my career and troubleshooting my life, eventually just losing myself in the sweat and the cycling. Its been a long time since I sat with my thoughts for 60 uninterrupted minutes. Most of my workouts are so focused that its a welcome change to just zone out. And the benefits are tangible: A study from Finland suggests that long cardio workouts actually improve brain health more than high-intensity intervals do.

Im at the gym waiting to meet one of the guys. To kill time I hop on an elliptical and turn on the TV. Next to me is Bob Barkers doppelgangera slender, gold-skinned, white-haired, veneered gentleman. Hes working the stair climber at a fast-but-comfortable pace while flipping through a book.

What are you reading? I ask, remembering Old Guy Lesson #1.

The Winds of War, he says. Its a novel about World War II, but its historically accurate, so you learn a lot. I tell him that the Second World War fascinates me, and Ill be sure to read the book.

Young men on stationary bikes exercising in the gym

He lifts his bushy eyebrows and glares at the TV screen on my machine. Its tuned to Dog the Bounty Hunter, courtesy of the last person who used it. Dog is tasing someone who appears to be a meth head.

Bob closes his book and heads for another machine, but he leaves me thinking. I have a bad habit of blasting through my cardio warmup. Reading a novel or the days news would not only stretch my mind but also ensure that I dont go overboard: If at any point I have trouble reading, Ill know my warmup is becoming too intense. And book learning keeps you mentally fit, of course.

<h1> 7. Know That Personal Records Arent the Most Important Measure </h1>

Im steeping in the gyms hot tub with Andy and three of the other guys after a workout. Theyre delighted to have a fresh addition to their old-man soup. Me? Im wishing Id worn a wetsuit.

When it comes to fitness, Ive always believed that continually moving the dial forward is the key to improvement, and I say so.

But heres whats wrong with that, says Andy. Lets say your goal is to lift 200 pounds. So you work really hard and eventually reach your goal. Where do you go from there? You try for 210, then 220, but you cant keep doing that forever. Your quest for more, more, more will eventually lead to injury. And once youre hurt, you have to sit out, and you end up in worse shape than if youd just stuck to that 200-pound weight.

Why is Andy so sure of this? Hes been there, and hes seen it in old friends whove spent time at the weight rack. In fact, hes in this hot tub to make sure he recovers adequately. You can bounce back when youre young, he says, but eventually you reach an age when the injuries stick and affect your long-term quality of life.

I stew on this awhile. I have no reason to push the envelope other than my ego and the upward curve on an Excel chart. Maybe theres a lesson here too: When doing inherently risky exercises, such as deadlifts, maybe I should start valuing perfection over pounds. Instead of judging improvement by weight, perhaps I should gauge it by form, movement, and tempo. After all, whos fitter? The guy who can lift 250 pounds until he tries for 260 and shatters, or the guy who can lift 200 pounds until the day he dies?

After spending hours hanging out at the gym with these gentlemen, Im shocked at how they seemed to de-age before my eyes. What I perceived as old just a week ago no longer holds. Andy, Scott, Art, John, Clair, Bob Barker, and their fellow gym geezers move well and live with vitality.

Then it occurs to me: They arent the same breed of seniors I see shuffling into the diner for 4:30 dinners, or the ones camped in front of casino slots with oxygen tanks on their motorized chairs. These guys are enjoying the benefits of decades of healthy living, having watched their diets, controlled their weight and, most important, stayed active.

Suddenly, old doesnt seem so age-spotted and off-putting to me. Exerciseno, smart exercisecreates a new type of aging, and in 40 more years I wouldnt mind being just like these guys.

This article originally ran in the November 2016 issue of Men's Health.

8 Lessons Young Men Can Learn Training With Men Over 60

Six months ago, Mens Health fitness advisor Bill Hartman, P.T., was like many of us: in decent enough shape, but heading in the wrong direction after years of eating on the go while working long hours. Sure, he exercised hard a few days a week and ate healthy foods.But I didnt pay attention to portion sizes, he says. A snack of a handful of cashews, for example, often became five or six handfuls, leaving him with a 600-calorie tab.

With the big 5-0 approaching, Hartman, a co-owner of IFAST Gym in Indianapolis, needed some inspiration. Jack LaLanne would often do a big physical challenge on his birthday, he says. I thought maybe I should do something a little crazy too. Hartmans goal: to get shredded and regain the shape he was in back in his 20s, when he competed as a bodybuilder.

He would need to muster more effort this time, because losing fat and building muscle becomes harder with every passing year. After age 35, diminishing testosterone and slowing metabolism add to the challenge. Still, the path to a bodybuilder physique is the same: strict diet and exercise.

First, Hartman devised the perfect fitness plan. Next he recruited his friend, Mens Health nutrition advisor Mike Roussell, Ph.D., to build him a nutrition program that would satisfy his appetite and sculpt his core.

Then it all came down to following the plans, says Hartman.

Now Hartman is down more than 25 pounds, and his body fat hovers around 7 percent. Losing fat and dropping pounds also benefited Hartmans general health by reducing inflammation and improving his insulin levels, two factors that have health implications as we get older. Smaller dogs live longer, says Hartman, using an example from nature.

Want to get your bark back? Just follow the four fundamentals of Hartmans program.

Man concentrates on his work out in a gym.

Many men think the only way to develop their abs is to hammer in the gym and slash their calorie intake. But if you do too much too soon, you could burn muscle and burn out mentally. Yes, big goals require big measures. But if you go extreme right away and then stop progressing, where do you go from there? Roussell asks. So start by cutting 200 to 300 calories a day from your diet. Stick to it. Once you reach that plateau (usually in two to four weeks), cut out another 200 to 300 and repeat. Hartman, for example, launched his plan by dropping to 2,200 daily calories; then he cut his intake further to 2,000 and ended at 1,750.

A typical training program prescribes a specific number of sets, such as 3 or 5. But because your performance can vary from day to day based on influences such as sleep and stress, that prescription might be too rigorous or too easy on any given day. Thats why Hartman based his training program around autoregulation sets. In those, your reps stay the same but the sets can vary depending on your performance. You do as many as you can until your form breaks down or your strength gives out. This strategy accomplishes two things: It hits your body with a stimulus thats enough for you to make progress, and it keeps the brakes on to prevent you from digging too deep and sustaining an injury. To try it, check out the workout below.

Every Saturday for the past decade, Hartman has taken his gyms interns out for lunch at a local Mexican cantina to talk shop, decompress, and review the week. Obviously the fajitas, margaritas, and all the chips I could eat didnt fly anymore, says Hartman. So Roussell helped him find a meal he enjoyed that also worked for his diet. The solution? A spicy chicken breast on a bed of greens. Maintaining normal rituals during your diet is key to sustainability, says Roussell.

Midway through his transformation process, Hartman had to travel to China for 10 days. He stuck to his nutrition plan by packing 24 Epic protein bars, 10 packages of Chefs Cut Buffalo Style Real Chicken Jerky, and four cans of cashews. When youre committed to a goal, your nutrition decisions need to be made beforehand, Roussell says. At home, Hartman tacked his eating plan on his fridge so he and his wife could easily shop and cook around it. She also lost weight, says Hartman.

BONUS TIP: Why Cardio Is Your Weight Loss Turbo

Going balls to the wall in the gym six days a week may actually sabotage your gains.Heres why: Your body needs time between hard gym sessions to recover and build muscle. If you limit that time by doing tough workouts more than two days in a row, your muscle cant rebuild. Instead, it just keep swearing down.

To make progress between his hard sessions, Hartman did relaxed cardio workouts. They helped increase blood flow to his muscles, boosting his recovery. Hit the stair climber or do a body-weight circuit of squats, step ups, inverted rows, and pushups. Keep at it for 45 to 60 minutes. Try to keep your heart rate between 120 and 150 beats per minute.

<h1> The Fast Track to a Six-Pack Workout </h1>

Exercising with a Smart Phone while in Plank Position

Hartman designed this workout plan to help him to get ripped ator even after50.

In this program youll work out 5 days a week. On days 1, 3, and 5, youll lift. Heres how: In the first exercise, youll autoregulate your sets. Afterward youll complete two different circuits.

On your strength training days (1, 3, and 5), start with the Primary Exercise. Each Primary Exercise is done using autoregulation sets; that is, youll do anywhere from 3 to 6 sets, depending on your form. If your form breaks down on, say, set 4, youre done for that day. Some days youll be able to crank out 6 sets; others just 3. This method gives you a perfect muscle-building dose. Afterward, do the circuits: Perform the listed exercises in order and for the prescribed number of reps. The workout is over after you complete your circuits.

You can follow this program for anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks.

PRIMARY EXERCISE 1

<ul><li> Sets: 3 to 6 </li><li> Reps: 4, using a weight you can lift 6 times </li><li> Rest: 2 to 3 minutes between sets </li></ul>

<ul><li> Exercises: 2, 3, 4 </li><li> Reps: 6 to 8 each </li><li> Rest: 75 seconds </li><li> Rounds: as many as you can until your form fails </li></ul>

<ul><li> Exercises: 6, 12 </li><li> Reps: 8 to 10 each </li><li> Rest: 75 seconds </li><li> Rounds: 2 </li></ul>

<ul><li> 45 to 60 minutes at a conversational pace </li></ul>

PRIMARY EXERCISE 5

<ul><li> Exercises: 4, 7, 8 </li><li> Reps: 6 to 8 each </li><li> Rest: 75 seconds </li><li> Rounds: as many as you can until your form fails </li></ul>

PRIMARY EXERCISE 9

<ul><li> Exercises: 10, 2, 11 </li><li> Reps: 6 to 8 each </li><li> Rest: 75 seconds </li><li> Rounds: as many as you can until your form fails </li></ul>

<ul><li> Lie on your back and hold a barbell above your chest with your arms straight and knees bent. Lower the barbell until your upper arms touch the floor. Pause and press the weight back up to the starting position. If you dont want to lie on the floor, do a regular bench press. </li></ul>

2. Dumbbell Alternating Low-Incline Bench Press

<ul><li> Lie face up on an incline bench set to a low angle. Hold a pair of dumbbells above your chest with your arms straight and palms facing forward. Slowly lower your right arm to the side of your chest while keeping your left arm extended above your body. Press back up with your right arm, lower your left arm, and return to the starting position. Thats 1 rep. </li></ul>

<ul><li> Hold a pair of dumbbells at arms length in front of your thighs. Without rounding your lower back, bend at your hips and lower your torso toward the floor. Pause and return to the starting position. </li></ul>

<ul><li> Attach a lat pulldown handle to the high pulley of a cable station. Grab the handle and sit in front of the weight stack. Slowly pull the handle to your chest. Pause and slowly reverse the move. </li></ul>

<ul><li> Hang at arms length from a chinup bar using an underhand, shoulder-width grip. This is the starting position. Pull your chest to the bar as fast as you can, pause, and take 2 seconds to lower yourself to the starting position. </li></ul>

<ul><li> Grab a heavy dumbbell, hold it at your side, and walk. Keep your torso straight throughout. Walk 100 feet; then switch sides and walk the 100 feet back. </li></ul>

<ul><li> Hold a pair of dumbbells with your palms facing inward, upper arms perpendicular to the floor. Push your hips back and lower your body into a squat; then push back up. </li></ul>

8. Standing Single-Arm Kettlebell Push

<ul><li> Stand holding a kettlebell in your right hand with your arm bent, the kettlebell just outside your right shoulder. Extend your left hand out to the side. Press the weight overhead until your arm is straight; then lower it to the starting position. (You can use a dumbbell instead of a kettlebell.) Do all your reps; then switch hands and repeat. Dont rest between sides. </li></ul>

<ul><li> Bend at your hips and knees and grab a barbell using an overhand grip, your arms just outside your legs. Now stand up, pulling the bar off the floor and thrusting your hips forward. Lower it back to the floor. </li></ul>

<ul><li> Hold a dumbbell in your left hand and place your right hand and right knee on a flat bench. Lower your torso until its almost parallel to the floor. Let the dumbbell hang at arms length from your shoulder. Pull the dumbbell to the side of your chest. Pause and return to the start. Do all your reps, switch sides, and repeat. </li></ul>

<ul><li> Grab a pair of dumbbells and place your left foot on a bench or step. Press through your left heel and slowly lift yourself onto the bench as you raise your right knee to a 90-degree angle. Take 2 seconds to lower your right foot back to the floor. Do all your reps, switch legs, and repeat. </li></ul>

<ul><li> Lie on your back, holding a kettlebell by its horns above your chest with your arms straight.Bring your hips and knees to 90 degrees and feet together. Take in a big breath. As you breathe out, slowly lower the kettlebell directly behind your head, keeping your lower back on the floor. Pause; then breathe in as you pull it back up. </li></ul>

This article originally ran in the October 2016 issue of Men's Health.

4 Keys to Getting Shredded After 50

Stand up and kick off your shoes. Spread your feet hip-width apart with your toes pointing straight ahead. Now squat. Go as low as you possibly can, making sure you dont raise your heels off the floor or slump forward. If you couldnt drop your butt to just a few inches above the ground, you just discovered your problem.

Sitting in a squat position is the most natural movement for the body, says Roop Sihota, a Bay Area physical therapist. Thats because the joints and muscles you need for squattinghips, knees, ankles, core, quads, glutes, and moreare your powerhouses for everything from walking and running to swinging a golf club and doing yard work. If you cant squat properly, your joints are probably too stiff and your muscles too tight. That causes you to lose your ability to move properly, which in turn affects delicate areas such as your knees and back.

The result? Potential pain and injury, and decreased range of motion over the long haul. Thats why learning to squat might be the most important thing you can do for your fitness and wellness. If youre wondering why you failed the test in the first place, the answer is simple. Humans were meant to sit in the squat position. Then chairs came along.

Learning to squat might be the most important thing you can do for your fitness and wellness.

Ever since first grade youve probably been sitting in a chair eight hours a day, five days a week. A chair delivers comfort, sure, but its also an unnatural structure that your body adapts to. Such cultural practices as skull flattening and neck stretching proved this phenomenon quite effectively.

In a chair sitting position, your hip and ankle muscles shorten and your stabilizing core muscles turn off because the chair supports your body. Over time, your hips and ankles tighten while the core areas weaken, explains Doug Kechijian, a physical therapist with Resilient PT in New York City. Tight, weak muscles are a recipe for pain, injury, and compromised performance. But when we spend a greater amount of time squatting, our hips and ankles dont become tight or weak.

When a muscle becomes overly tight, your brain may sense the area as threatened and send pain there as a way to entice you to move, says Kechijian. For example, sciaticaa chronic pain in the ass, literallyoccurs when your hip muscles become too tight. The reason therapies such as foam rolling and stretching temporarily relieve pain is that they reduce some tension. Learning to squat correctly means youll loosen these muscles for good and banish your pain.

Men and women warming up for training in gymnasium

Performing nearly any physical activity on tight and weak muscles is a bad idea. If you run on immobile ankles and tight hips, you risk hamstring or knee injuries because power and impact shifts to the wrong areas, says Marco Sanchez, cofounder of Movement as Medicine, a massage and movement therapy clinic outside Boston.

When a guy with tight hips and ankles picks up anything from a barbell to a bag of mulch, he cant reach the ground while keeping his back straight. So his spine bends, sending the load there. That can cause a disc bulgeand a world of hurt. Nearly every sport requires motion from the hips because your hips give your body rotational power. Take golf: If your hips are too tight, driving a ball can lead to back pain because youre moving from your spine instead of your hips.

An inability to squat can lead to pain or injury in every joint in the body, Sihota says. In fact, research shows that people in rural areas of some developing countries where the sit squat is a common resting position have the lowest incidence of posture-related problems, like lower-back pain.

In your workouts, a full range of motion in moves like the barbell squat and the deadlift is impossible if lack of flexibility in your hips and ankles make it difficult for you to drop into a full or deep squat. (And if you do it anyway, you could be vulnerable to pain or injury, especially if youve loaded up the weight.) That makes the exercise less effective because you engage fewer muscles and keep them under tension for less time. The result: You see less return from your work-out for the same amount of effort.

Learning to squat properly is more than a game changerits a life changer. Youll notice fewer aches and pains. Youll reduce your risk of injury. Youll build more muscle across your body. Best of all, youre likely to see your performance improverunning faster, smashing a ball farther, punching harderin just about every activity you do.

These tests can help identify whats sabotaging your squat. You may have just one problem area, or threehips, core, and ankles. Feel free to do the fix for longer than we recommend; itll only help you reach your goal faster.

Hips and/or Core

This test tells you whether your problem is tight hips or a weak core. Lie on your back and assume a squat position lying down: Bring your knees as close to your chest as you can. Cant get them past your hips? Your hips are too tight. If you can bring your knees high, then your core just isnt strong or stable enough to support your squat position while standing, says Sanchez.

Your ankles need to flex enough to let your knees track over your feet, allowing you to distribute your weight evenly. This test tells you whether your ankles are too stiff to allow that. Stand in a staggered stance facing a wall, your front foot 5 inches from it. Push your front knee as far forward as you can, attempting to touch the wall with it. If your knee cant touch the wall, you failed.

Hold onto a doorjamb, the frame of a squat rack, or a chair. Now drop into a squat, using the frame, rack, or chair to stabilize your body just enough to keep from falling. Your torso should be upright and you should feel your core engage. Breathe deeply in the position for up to 30 seconds. Stand up. Thats 1 rep. Do 3 reps, 3 days a week.

Get down on all fours. Extend your left leg; your knee should be above the floor. Move your right foot beneath your left leg and pin your right heel to the outside of your left knee. This is the starting position. Now move your hips back and forth to the right for 1 minute, feeling your right hip stretch. Switch sides and repeat. Do this drill once a day.

Do your knees, hips, or back sometimes hurt for seemingly random reasons? Do running, lifting, and playing sports leave you sore in the wrong places? Do you walk around gingerly, feeling stiff all over? This three-second test may reveal the reason.

Michael Easter

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