Latest / Harder Than Life / Build the Body You Refuse to Lose | Don't Let Your Body Rot

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Build the Body You Refuse to Lose | Don't Let Your Body Rot · Harder Than Life

• 0:01
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• 0:30
  There's a number that predicts how long you're going to live better than your blood pressure does, better than your cholesterol, better than the thing your doctor actually spends the entire appointment on.
• 0:40
  And it's not your weight. And it's not that step count that so many of us are tracking. It's your strength. They put 140,000 people across 17 countries through a test. And they found that grip strength beats systolic blood pressure as a predictor of death. Every five kilogram drop in strength was a 16% higher chance that you die. Not feel worse, die.
• 1:09
  So the weaker you got, the more likely you were to die. Here's the part nobody wants to sit with, nobody wants to really understand. Starting at 30, we're all losing 3% to 5% of your muscle mass every decade, automatically, quietly, while you're busy winning at everything else.
• 1:27
  You don't feel it happen. You just wake up at 55, weaker, softer, slower, and we call it getting older. It's not aging. It's neglect in a nicer name. We're going to fix that today. I spent years building a company, building a brand, building everything except the one system that actually keeping me alive. So today we're going to fix that.
• 1:53
  No biohacks, no magic peptides in this episode, just the truth about the work it takes to look like me. And keep in mind, I've always been in decent shape, but until very recently, I'm in excellent shape because I focused on that for longevity purposes. Your body is your most important asset you own, and you're allowed to let it rot, but let's not do that.
• 2:23
  Welcome back to the Heart of Life episode. Thursday solo episode, just you and me. I love these because it's me reaching back to you guys and calling you up, inspiring, educating, and motivating you. Today's episode is going to be on why muscle mass is the number one longevity marker and how I build it. Keep in mind, I'm not a doctor.
• 2:48
  I'm not claiming to be, but in all my research, all my testing on my body and all the people I hang out with, I document and I pay it forward. This one's not optional, my loves. This is about life or death. And I'm going to teach you how to live a long, happy, healthy life in this episode. So stay with me.
• 3:10
  Keep in mind, I'm always, always talking and showing you guys the receipts. I am the proof, not a promise. If you watch my Instagram stories every single morning, I post them at the gym.
• 3:23
  Here's the experience in the reframe I want you to understand. It's not about the vanity. I don't post my six pack because, ooh, look at, hey, look at me. I look good. I do this because I want you to see that I'm doing the work right there with you. I'm in the mud. I am not looking down at anybody. I am looking back, trying to grab everybody and say, come, come.
• 3:44
  because I feel great right now. And because I build so much muscle, the muscle is your biggest organ in your body. No, it might be, I think it's the second biggest, sorry, it's the second biggest. I think your skin is your first and muscle is your second. So it is very important because it's where you store all of your independence, all of your survival mechanisms, everything gets stored in the muscles, all your energy and releases.
• 4:14
  And keep in mind, we've all had parents, grandparents that slowly decayed because they didn't understand. And they didn't have access to all the data that we have today that says, hey, building muscle will actually make you live longer. And they fall. And the fall inevitably ends their life. This happened to my grandmother.
• 4:39
  She was reaching for a dish, lost her balance, fell down, broke the table. We had to put her in a retirement home shortly after she was no longer here. It happens to a lot of us. I'll give you a case in point with me. I'm always, I hate taking multiple trips to do anything. Whether it be taking the groceries out of the car, whether it be walking up the stairs, I don't.
• 5:01
  try to overload myself and I tend to trip and fall, but I am tremendously muscular and I fall and bounce right back up. I'm going to teach you all of this stuff today because if you end up in the hospital for any reason, you never come out of there, right? It could be simple as a broken leg. It just, you just once something goes wrong, it tends to spiral. So let's prevent it people and strong is a death risk number.
• 5:31
  Understand that the stronger you are, the longer you'll live as long as you built it the right way. Here was my wake up moment. It was I was in my daughter Ariana's bedroom and I was painting her room just before she was born. And my partner at the time took a picture of me.
• 5:55
  And I had written Ari's name on the wall. And during that time, I let myself go because we had a very rough pregnancy. My daughter Ari was born early. It was just a really rough pregnancy. She was four pounds, three ounces, just a teeny tiny baby. So I had to sit with my partner and make sure she was all right. I had to feed her every day. And I let myself go.
• 6:17
  But I worked like a dog. So that was my thing. And she took a picture of me in that room. And I saw it afterwards and went, what in the actual heck? I was up 230. And if you guys know me, I'm 5'9". 230, and I was chubby. Yeah.
• 6:36
  So after the kid was born, she was born early. And about a month after when I got her stabilized and got her all fattened up, I started back in the gym. I knew that if I kept that up, I didn't like the way I looked. I didn't like the way I felt. I was out of breath.
• 6:53
  I was chubby. And if that continued, I would have just kept gaining weight. So I declared war on myself. And it didn't take me very long to get back into pretty good shape. And then fast forward a few years, I went to the doctors and did all this stuff. That's not for this particular episode. I've done other episodes on that. But really...
• 7:13
  I want to talk about the work, the work, none of the diet, none of the nutrition, just the workouts. That's what this episode is about. So I get many, many, many messages from you guys. What's your workout plan? I'm going to deep dive into all this stuff. So keep in mind, I don't want you just to win on the outside and erode on the inside. I've done that too. This is about equanimity, winning physically and emotionally.
• 7:42
  Having a good balance, it isn't a work-life balance, it is a physical and emotional balance is what we're after. Here's the lesson. Grip strength beats the blood pressure. I said it in the opening. So grip strength,
• 7:56
  is really the greatest indicator of how strong you are. I have a death grip, that's why I stink at golf. You're supposed to grip the golf club real light, I grip it like a death grip. If you guys look on YouTube, I have veins coming out my forearms. I have always increased my grip strength
• 8:16
  because that dexterity is what goes quickly as you age. And as I said, that study, I think it's called a pure study. Look it up, pure study, said 140,000 people are across 17 countries. So this is not an anecdote. This is a real study that we found that showed that every five kilograms that you decayed
• 8:39
  was a 16% higher death rate. That's kind of freaky. Five kilograms is nothing. Notice that for most of the people that listen to the United States, this was a worldwide study, so everything goes into the metric system. So sorry about the five kilograms versus pounds.
• 8:56
  My friends in the UK are like, what are you talking about? Strength does predict better than any kind of mass. It's not how big you get. It's strength. That's why you see these skinny, strong fitness people are usually outliving the big bodybuilders. So it's strength.
• 9:18
  not how big you are. And keep in mind, no matter how big you are, the reciprocal is true as well. Low strength kills regardless of size. So even a big man who doesn't have real strong strength has a higher death risk.
• 9:35
  In this Ozempic world, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk to you guys about that skinny fat. Small and weak is dangerous. What I mean by skinny fat is, and this isn't calling anybody out, guys. I'm not trying to call any of you out. If you took Ozempic or some sort of weight loss that you dropped an abnormal amount of, not an abnormal, just a lot of weight in a short period of time, I want you to get in the gym and increase your strength. Okay.
• 10:04
  It is the very big risk indicator of death. I'm proud of you for losing the weight, but now we have to build strength. You don't have to get big. You don't have to get muscular, but you have to increase your strength. Keep in mind, too, it's that three to five percent muscle mass loss per decade is automatic. And that's if you're doing nothing. That just happens. So if you.
• 10:27
  neglect your body, that can go up to 10, 15%, which means your decline is even faster. Those of us that are over 50 automatically jumps up to about 8% per year after 50. So yeah, just 156 months ago. And, um,
• 10:45
  I am fighting it off like crazy. And if you look at me lately, I think I'm in the best shape of my life. I'm going to get into how I did it here shortly. I just want to give you all the facts and the backstory. Keep in mind that muscle is your glucose, that sugar disposal system. Sugar, you've done any research on, is just terrible for you.
• 11:06
  This is where you hear, I have low blood sugar. Don't get me wrong, man, I have that sugar fix. I have a sugar craving like crazy, but I always know when I give into it, I feel worse. So I,
• 11:18
  tend to stay away from it as much as I can. So the more muscle you have, the better insulin, the fewer amount of diseases, the fewer amount of sicknesses that you have. As a matter of fact, I can tell you, I haven't been sick in, I'm going to jinx myself, guys. It's probably been six to eight months since I've even felt any remotely like a sickness, sickness where I was in bed, might've been me a year. So this is metabolic insurance. It's not for vanity. Strength
• 11:48
  feel better and make you better. I gave you all the backstory and I'm going to tell you the psychology behind why people don't do this. The real reason isn't time. It's never the, I'm too busy. I can't figure it. I can't fit it in. Cause that's, that's malarkey. I literally go, you guys see it. I'm up at 4am and I get there at 5am and then I work
• 12:13
  eight to 10 hours in NTM and then I still do all my interviews for harder than life so time is not it and keep in mind you have to believe in invisible progress this is not a dopamine hit although I do feel that I do feel dopamine when I go because I look in the mirror and then there is a little bit of it just a little bit but it's boring to win here we tend to overcompensate in other areas hey if I'm winning in business
• 12:40
  I can slack off a little bit in the physical, but that is the slow killer. You're choosing ease today for dis-ease tomorrow. Dis-ease, disease. We talk to ourselves. I'll start when things calm down, when they slow down.
• 12:59
  They never calm down. The best day to start was yesterday since we missed that. And it's history. Start today. Life is never going to settle down. You have to manufacture it. And the easiest way to do this is to make it your identity. Literally, if God said to me,
• 13:21
  Kelly, you don't have to work out anymore and you can keep your body. I would still wake up in the morning and go to the gym because it's my identity. So make this your identity. You've waited this long. We're 15 minutes into this. I'm going to give you the system now. Here is how I do it. And it's pretty simple. It's four pillars is what I use. And the pillar one is very simple. Lift down.
• 13:47
  heavy and progressively. This does not mean that you guys have seen me, I've put the 150 pound dumbbells, I lift stupid heavy. Heavy is in relation to what's heavy to you.
• 14:02
  So what you're used to lifting or what you think you can lift, go 10% more, 10% more. That's lifting heavy. And then keep compounding that. So resistance training, three times a week minimum.
• 14:19
  Now I'm bringing this way down. This is not exactly what I do. I lift strength training seven days a week. But for most of you, I just want you to do minimum of three times. I would prefer five, but a minimum of three. So you set the baseline at three times a week. No exceptions. Come on, people. We can all do this. So heavy and progressive beats everything. The reason why is because you got to overload those muscles.
• 14:46
  Use compounding movements, the push-pull, carrying things, because that increases your grip strength. And as much as I hate it, squats. Squats build all of your muscles. So squat, a push-pull, and anything to carry. You cheat code kettlebells.
• 15:07
  And each and every set add reps or add weight. And then every week add reps. So constantly increase intensity. This works, people. That's pillar one. You're never too old. I'm 50 right now and I'm showing you the results. Even people in their 80s can build muscle. And if you're sitting here going, God, Kelly, I don't know how to get to three. You're the one I'm talking to.
• 15:36
  Get in the gym. You will love it. Pillar two is feed these muscles. You need a gram of protein per pound of weight you're trying to be. I am 210 pounds right now. I take in about 220 grams of protein a day. It is very hard to do. So you have to supplement it with protein bars and protein drinks. But as you get older, you need more protein.
• 16:04
  protein with age. So get that up. And I always start with the protein first every single meal. So anchor every meal with protein before anything else. And my doctor recently just told me I got to get more fish in my diet, specifically salmon.
• 16:21
  They want me to, I have it once a week. They wanted at least twice. They said three, but that's a little bit too much for me. So I do two, but it all starts. There's a lot of times when I'm eating dinner where I just have a big plate of meat and I don't care about anything else. Keep in mind.
• 16:38
  We're building, not just maintaining. Aim to grow the muscle, not merely hold the line. And you do that with the aforementioned pillar one by lifting heavier than what you normally do. Pillar number three, and this is the one I missed all of last year. Remember, I make the mistakes, I make the mistakes,
• 16:58
  And I've reached back and I tell you guys, please listen to this one. Pillar three is recovery like it matters because it does. Sleep is where muscle builds. Growth happens in recovery, not in the gym. So protect your sleep and your rest like it's your life depends on it because it does.
• 17:21
  I also work in, you guys see it on the receipts on social media, walking daily to protect the joints. Low intensity movement supports the heavy lifting and joint health and it also loosens up the joints. I also add in a lot of stretching, especially at 50. I roll on those...
• 17:42
  roller and I stretch and I use the Theragun and it helps everything because that's what releases my stress. Because stress does eat your muscle. Stress and cortisol break muscle down. So we have to make sure we're managing that.
• 17:59
  Pillar four is measure. Don't guess. Test your grip strength and track it. Even if you have to open your phone and say how much you're lifting every single week, you want to make sure that every week you're just getting a little bit stronger. Probably measure, I say every week, but probably watch it at every month to three-month interval. Every week it's a little bit, it's a little too myopic. Write it down, put it in your journal, whatever.
• 18:29
  It looks like the numbers don't lie. Feelings do. So measure what you measure gets better and don't rely on how you feel. You know what? I'm going to say do a six-week check. I said every month, do it every six weeks. Every six weeks, take a look in and say, okay, okay.
• 18:54
  Is this working? Is it not working? Am I making my goals? And then you course correct. So every six week check in. So again, the four pillars, number one,
• 19:02
  Lift heavy progressively. Pillar two is protein feeding the muscles. Pillar three is recovery. Pillar four is measure. It's just that simple, guys. If you want to email me, kelly at heartandlife.com, I will send you this. No problem. If you give me a little more details about your weight, I'll actually build you something. I'll use my AI.com.
• 19:26
  workout plan, and I will build you something personally for you. Promise. Send that to me, kelly at harder than life.com. And I will send you back a personal workout scheme. Here's my invitation to you. This is your retirement that matters. I know it sounds weird. Some of you guys, I have a massive following of you, 20 somethings. And you're probably, Kelly, what are you talking about? I'm not going to retire for 30, 40 years. Guys, it happens fast.
• 19:52
  I remember 30 years ago like it was yesterday. I still feel 20, but I'm 50. Start now. This is not about money, people. This is your life. We say we only live once. No, no, no, we only die once. So you wanna be able to pick up your kids,
• 20:08
  and your grandkids when you're 80 and you want to be on this earth when you're 80. I do a little hack. Whenever some celebrity or someone famous passes away, I look at their age and I subtract it from mine and I say, that could be me. So take this very seriously because we're not going to live forever. We are only on this earth for a finite period. Why not enjoy it?
• 20:33
  And it tried to extend it. The body you're building now decides on how your life is going to be. So today's work determines whether that future actually happens and what it feels like. So I want you to start today. One heavier set at the gym. Lower that barrier to action.
• 20:53
  Because it needs to start today. I want this for you as much as you need it. The body keeps the score, my friends. These small little efforts accumulate. And the body records everything you do. Raise that standard and protect the mission.
• 21:11
  Guys, you made it this far, 20-some minutes into this, do me a favor, share this with one person, the friend who says they're too busy. Tag me in it on social media, kelly.segal, that's 71. And keep in mind, I have books out for this. We're working on book number three.
• 21:31
  And email me, kelly at harderthanlife.com. Tell me a little bit about you and I'll give you a personalized workout plan. I promise to you, always paying it forward. So until next week, be harder than life and go build today. See you next Thursday.
• 21:48
  Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Segal supporters. Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with, delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.