The Two Stats That Shock

SPEAKER_03 0:00

What they don't talk to you about is if you have low muscle mass, if you have low strength, meaning you're in the bottom 10% of your age group in strength and muscle, you have a 250% chance of dying early. If you have low VO2 max, right, if you're in the bottom 5 to 10% of your age group, you have a 400% greater risk of dying early.

Welcome And Meet Timothy Ward

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Welcome to this Empty Nest Life, the podcast dedicated to helping you embrace this transformative season with purpose, passion, and joy. In each episode, we explore stories, strategies, and insights to help turn your empty nest into an exciting new chapter. Whether you're redefining your identity, pursuing new passions, or finding peace in the pause, you're in the right place. Here's your host, the Empty Nest coach, Jay Ramsden.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Hey there, my emptiness friends. You hear it all the time. Fitness is the foundation to thriving as we age. But do you ever wonder what that looks like when you're in your 50s, 60s, and beyond? Today in studio, I have Timothy Ward. He's a remarkable fitness mentor and author of The Goat Within. Tim's personal journey from a childhood filled with trauma and chaos to becoming a beacon of strength and purpose. It's nothing short of inspiring. And at 60, he embodies the principles he teaches and believes that fitness can save lives. We're going to get into Tim's story, the importance of fitness as we age and more right now. Tim, welcome to this emptiness life.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

Excellent, excellent. So good to be here. So good to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

I'm so happy that you have joined us today. You know what? Because it's a big topic for folks, right? It's like fitness, that's what you hear. People hear talk about all the time, like protein this and protein that, and for the for women, the hormones and how that affects us. But fitness as we age is such an important topic. I just I'm curious like how you got into it and where it began. Let's let's start there and see where this conversation takes us.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

No, you're right on, Jay. There, there's so many, so many pieces to fitness. And if you ask a hundred people

Trauma, Sports, And A Way Out

SPEAKER_03 2:10

to define fitness, you're gonna get a hundred different answers, right? So there's a lot of common roots that I talk about. I i'm uh I'm on speaking tours now that I talk about this very thing. Um the the first order of business is to sort of give give you in your listeners a a little bit of my beginnings, and they're not so pretty when I was young. Took me a while to overcome some of the uh things I had to overcome as a young boy. I was uh in a very physically abusive household as a young kid, three, four, five, six years old, ten years old. Not pretty, not fun, and uh in and out of the hospitals and you know, all that sort of stuff. So tough, but real, real important for what I've been able to accomplish in my life now with my own kids, and we'll we'll get into that a little bit as we speak to each other. But uh so sports at a young age, I was a I was a good athlete, just naturally gifted as an athlete, good hand-eye coordination, speed, all that sort of stuff. So sports in athletics, basketball, football, baseball, tennis, those types of things, those were my happy place. That was that was my happy place when I was young. And I never wanted to be home because of the beatings and the physical abuse and all that. So, man, 365 days a year, I just wanted to be in that feel-good place of playing sports, youth sports, winning games, all my friends with me, parents of those kids knew what I was going through. But back in the 70s, and and uh people really it wasn't like today when that type of stuff was going on, right? I had to hide a lot of it. But people knew, the parents knew, the bruises and all that sort of stuff. So athletics being my happy place, that's all I wanted to do when I kept competing in sports. Naturally, when I got into my teens, in order to be uh good at sports, very natural to start working out and to learn about nutrition and all of the things that athletes, dedicated athletes, will will go through. That that continued. And me in my inquiring mind, even at a young age, I really wanted to know much more than just a typical you walk into some gym or a of course the the old classic high school gym where everybody does does everything incorrectly. Right. I I I in my in my early 20s, I actually was working out quite hard because I got I received sports scholarships to college and all that. So I was very dedicated to keep that journey going. And I it was there in the summer, uh one summer that I had met a real exercise scientist, a five-year degree, exercise kinesiology, exercise physiology,

The Moment Training Got Scientific

SPEAKER_03 5:30

the the real deal, not some certified trainer. And you know, he told me one one day, he said, you're doing that exercise incorrectly. And I I said, What are you talking about? I've been I've been working out for 15 years. No, you're doing that wrong. In fact, everything you do is wrong. And I said, What are you talking about? But in the back of my mind, I I knew he was right. I knew he was right because I've seen what he was doing with clients. And he he had an array of clients, but he had Division I college athletes, he had middle-aged people, and I knew he was right. And one of the reasons I knew he was right was because I was stuck for two or three years. I couldn't get past strength curves or my cardiovascular, I couldn't get past these plateaus we all hear about in fitness. He said, Why don't you spend an hour with me? He says, I'm gonna show you the science of fitness. And I'm gonna give you some things to think about. And I said, Okay. Then I walked in like I'm a know-it-all. And I sat down, and this guy started in, and I couldn't get words out of my mouth. I was, I was so fascinated with the actual science of fitness. And that moment really started opening the doors in my mind to how complex the human body really is, how much misinformation exists in society about what is fitness, what is longevity, what is wellness. So that really kicked off my journey. I ended up working for him, really took on his clients. I got certifications back then for decent programs, American College of Exercise and you know, American American Council and Exercise, and all these different accreditations, and you go to classwork and all that. But I really learned deep level science from this guy. And that led me to actually meeting exercise PhDs in in the fitness and wellness space that took it even further for me. Um people that write protocols for Olympic athletes and nutrition protocols, that whole world is so incredibly complex. Um, my business now and my desire now, in today's age, I'm 61, really has turned into a brand for me that I've been able to simplify. I've been able to put into systems that are so highly effective for people. And this is what I talk about when I talk about the roots of longevity and the roots of real wellness. Um, most people think of fitness as I'm gonna either go to the gym, get on some machines, and do what that guy is doing, or do what that girl's doing over there. Or I've done some working out, I know what to do. Or they get on a treadmill and they turn the thing up and walk for 20 minutes, and then they itch their head and say, I've been doing this for 10 years and I'm still overweight, I don't feel great, I'm losing muscle, I'm losing strength. And this is a typical scenario of somebody that's 45 or 50 or 60 or 70. And I'm here to tell people we are so busy guiding and coaching people on real science of how to actually implement this stuff for you. And and that's my whole ecosystem now is to teach people how to engage properly in this. And we've got, like I say, we have platforms and programs. I bring people through when I do onboarding calls before we write them there their schedules on how they can take a week's worth of time and schedule really four things into their life. And it's not that hard to do, but what is hard to do is gaining the knowledge on how to do this stuff the right way. Yeah. And that's where I come into play.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Tim, I heard you say I you you used the word protocol when you're talking about the the folks that you'd met and for high-end athletes, like a nutrition protocol, a fitness protocol. What I what I what I think I heard you say was like this isn't a one-size-fits-all kind of fitness thing. This is everybody's body is different and what they need is different. And I would imagine as they age, that even changes a little bit. Is that fair?

SPEAKER_03 10:20

Absolutely, 100% to to to comment on that very statement you just made. Everybody has a has a different outcome in their brain. If I'm training a Division I college athlete, if I'm writing protocols for a team or an individual, you have different outcomes for different sports. For instance, maybe a football player has a need for explosive, straight-on uh strength. Where maybe a basketball player or a tennis player has an extreme need for directional change in speed. Those are different training protocols. If somebody comes to me that's 58 and is having trouble losing 20 or 30 pounds, or they feel like they're losing strength, which they are, there are very specific protocols that they need to adhere to in order to have a strategy to lose that 20 or 30 pounds the right way and to increase muscle strength and muscle mass a little bit. So you're absolutely right. A 21-year-old athlete is completely different than a 58-year-old or woman really wants to do this stuff the right way.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Got it. Okay. And I know too, like as you as you look at this, like fitness is an important part of as we age. I always like to say if you if you look at your 90-year-old self, would they be proud of what you're doing today to get you to that point and be able to still have like strength and stability and all those things? But I I know too, in some of the in some of the work you've done and some of the things I read, was like you say people just feel don't feel the urge to quote unquote act their age, which means like slow down, go slower, especially when you get to be like 55 or 65 or 75. But I think you you cut against the grain there.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

100%. So if if I could bring anybody listening to there, if I could bring you into my world for 10 minutes and show you five of my clients, some of some of which have been with me for a while, people in their 70s, you would not believe they're in their 70s. The shape that they're in in the short amount of time they train with me every week, uh, you wouldn't believe it. You wouldn't believe the food that they eat, the nutrition protocols I give them. What I'm saying

Muscle And VO2 Max Save Lives

SPEAKER_03 13:00

is the human body is very adaptive, it will respond to whatever you're feeding. I don't mean nutrition or lifestyle, right? So I'll bring people into a typical doctor's meeting. So they go in and a few of the big topics that always get talked about, especially if somebody's 50, 60 years old, okay, they'll talk about blood pressure. They'll talk about maybe diabetes, which is a factor of nutrition. If you're a smoker, of course, we know that there's a big risk in in people that smoke. You take those three things right there, right? And you talk about high blood pressure, high blood pressure will give you a 20% increase of early death. A 20% increase, right? So that's something to pay attention to. If you have type 2 type 2 diabetes, you have about a 33% increased chance of early death, your your mortality rates, right? If you're a smoker, you have a 50% increase of dying young. Now, now technically, if you're a man and you're 38 years old, your life is half over at 38, right? We have a life expectancy of about 77. If you're old, or if you're a female, you're about 79, right in that range, right? So the these mortality rates are this is what I'm talking about, okay? But what they don't talk to you about, Jay, what they don't talk to you about is if you have low muscle mass, if you have low strength, meaning you're in the bottom 10% of your age group in strength and muscle, you have a 250% chance of dying early. Wow. That's a huge number to agree. These are all published reports, right? If you have low VO2 max, right, your cardiorespiratory, if you're in the bottom 5 to 10% of your age group, you have a 400% greater risk of dying early. You think about those numbers. And for some of you listening, the light bulb may go on, may not go on. But I'm telling you right now, without a question, your strength and muscle mass and your capacity for VO2 max are your greatest protectors of your longevity. And this is all, it's in the JAMA, it's on the New England Journal. You can see this stuff anywhere. So you're beginning to see more of a knowledge base or an educational process with society. There's not many of us out there that really teach this in a comprehensive way, right? You're seeing an uprising of people really saying, wait a minute, maybe pharmaceuticals are not the way to go. Maybe getting a shot every six months as

Bone Density And Osteoporosis Defense

SPEAKER_03 16:10

a female to help my bone density really isn't the best way to do this. And this topic right here on osteoporosis is a real big one for women. Ladies, whoever listening to this, I'm telling you right now, resistance training the right way is by far the best way to strengthen your bones and avoid osteoporosis. Now think about this scenario for a second. When I lift a weight, whether it's a dumbbell or a cable or maybe body weight, right? In specific exercises that you can do, that weight, my my muscle has to has to fire to pull that weight. Okay? My muscle is attached to tendon, my tendon is attached to the bone. That tendon is pulling on the bone when I'm lifting that weight. The bone senses that and it goes through a process called adapt adaptive remodeling, which it'll actually start to add layers of bone to respond to the adaptation of that resistance. If you do that enough in the right way for all your muscle groups, your bones will get denser and thicker and stronger, even at the age 65 or 70 years old. That's how important this stuff is.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Yeah, that's mind that's mind blowing right there for the folks that are listening. Okay, uh let's do this. I want to make

Best Next Step If You’re Starting

SPEAKER_01 17:40

it really applicable for folks. So let's break it into three different scenarios and just what your advice might be for them at those different scenarios. Okay. The first one would be somebody who hasn't really done anything, right? Mom or dad doesn't matter. They raised their kids, they worked hard, they're like 50 or 55, they haven't been in the gym, they're not walking, nothing. Who knows what their numbers are? I mean that starting point. Like, like what's the very best next step that that person should probably take?

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Great question. I get that question constantly. And as we talked about before, you and I, Jay, I'm on shows all over the world. And that question, no matter if you're in Italy, I have a lot of people in Australia that deal with me, or Singapore. That very question comes up borderless. It doesn't matter where you are, what country you're in, right? So, first of all, people that have never worked out or are or do a little bit of what they think is working out, those are my favorite favorite people to deal with. Okay. So the the number one thing person could do, right? The number one thing is to get our nutrition right. Okay, it's the easiest thing to do. And I'm going to tell you a little bit about something that we do with people like that in an incredible program we have for our clients in the U.S., all right. I'll tell you about that in a second. But the second most important thing you could do in that at that stage is the knowledge base to do basic resistance training workouts. We offer all that stuff to people through our website, and we'll we'll talk about that at the end of the show. If you do basic resistance training the right way, it doesn't mean you're lifting a thousand pounds like everybody thinks you have to, but it does come with some things that need to be adequate in the resistance training. There's an issue, again, we'll talk about that in our discussion. On what is adequate resistance for the human body? Okay. How do you do it the right way so you don't get injured? That's that's the million-dollar question rate that we teach that. That's the study of kinesiology or exercise form, biomechanics of how you don't hurt your joints, and you're able to have an adequate resistance training program that's going to boost your bone density. It's going to add muscle to your body. The more muscle you have, the more fat you automatically burn. 24-7. All those benefits are part of the adaptative process if you're feeding the right signal to your body. And this is what I get into and show people how to actually do that. So getting your nutrition right is number one. Getting your resistance training protocols done the right way is number two. If you just did those two things and stayed there to learn them the right way, and again, we we do this for people, that will get that'll move the needle so much for you that you will get into what I call fitness momentum. I have a best-selling book that I wrote, and I talk about that in the book. How do you get to that point where you're thinking about working out more as a lifestyle in a necessity rather than, oh man, I got to do that workout thing again. It's the best medicine you could ever have, but it's the lack of knowledge that holds people back from actually doing it, doing the right things in the right sequence at the right time, et cetera, et cetera. And it's it's a big body of work, but we've simplified it. You know, I'll tell you one of our one of our systems that we have, Jay, is called the longevity matrix. And this matrix is what I bring people through, what I get, either on the phone or online with them, which I do a lot of, or in front of a little audience or a group of corporate leaders that need to get their wellness practices up to snuff. So the longevity matrix is six things. The very first thing is to eliminate toxic nutrition. What is toxic nutrition? What are the components of it?

Longevity Matrix And Blood Biomarkers

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Most people have no idea because they don't really know the the the nuts and bolts of what really causes inflammation. All these toxicity issues in our modern food supply would would floor you. 90% of what's in grocery stores is mass-produced, really, really unhealthy food. So you have to learn how to eat right. And part of that is learning what toxic nutrition is so you can avoid it. The next four things is our fitness quadrant system. These are in the middle. It's resistance training is the top left quadrant. Nutrition is the top right quadrant. The lower left quadrant is cardio. What are you doing for cardio work and why are you doing it? The bottom in our fitness quadrant is rest and recovery. Those four pieces are the main stage of your lifestyle if you do this the right way. The bottom, number six, toxic nutrition and our custom supplementation sandwich our fitness quadrant in the middle. So this new program that we have, somebody a group of doctors heard me on a podcast a few months ago and they contacted me. They're in the United States, they're out in the southwest. We actually have the most incredible system right now for people. We actually have a blood panel that we do. Incredible program. We actually have 120 biomarkers that people can embark on. Typically, this test is well over $1,000. Our price that we have people come in on is $349. We hook them up with a lab core, they're all over the country. 120 biomarkers we measure. It shows all the deficiency deficiencies in the blood panel. We're able to show your deficient in these 18 minerals and vitamins. Maybe it's gut bacteria, right? Sure. And then we actually make in a U.S. facility out west custom blend for $149 a month to fill in all their deficiencies. Most people buy supplements, they have no idea if they even need magnesium or zinc or vitamin, they have no idea. Buy them on Amazon or Walmart, wherever they go. This is completely changes the game and it makes it affordable for people. So we're so excited about the program because the dozens of people that are on it, they're sleeping better, they have more energy, they're losing fat faster because their body now is getting ultimate balance in nutrients that they need. And it's the it's the only way to do it is getting blood work done, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:55

So true, absolutely. I've done something similar, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

It's a huge program for us that really brings brings what we do to another level. Now, you know, people don't need to do it, but man, if there's one thing you could do, I'm telling you, for that kind of money, you're talking a replacement cost, really, if you're already buying supplements that you don't, you don't even know if you need them, right? Most supplements are heavy metals in them. They're really inferior products, maybe overseas, all that sort of stuff. Right. So by targeting what you really need, that is a game changer for people right there. You add in a little bit of the right resistance training protocols, man, you you're on your way. You are on your way. So I talk about some of these people in my book that I've been training for quite a while, and the turnaround they've made physically and mentally is so unbelievable. In their mid-60s and 70s, it's it's it brought them into a new life because now they can be active, they can travel the world. They're not, like I say in the book, they're not nosediving in into decay by getting old without a strategy on how to press back against it. You can you can have a rebirth to yourself in your 50s, 60s, 70s. Yeah. So these these are the roots of it. And I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

I love it. Yeah, the strategy piece. All right. So I love what you you said about like the person, the in the first use case scenario, right? Somebody who doesn't know anything. The middle one, which basically is I'm thinking, is like me, right? Where I am in with my fitness journey and my health journey. So I'm somebody who is with a trainer twice a week for an hour. I do yoga once a week with a yoga instructor. I walk three times a week, three miles. I hike once a week between five and eight miles. I do intermittent fasting with an eight-hour window, and then I do every morning a pint of water with sodium, potassium, and magnesium blend. For me, that's me. That's where I am. So I've lost about 20-some pounds on that journey so far. But I'm like stagnanted. So for somebody who's in my use case, right? What'd be what would be that next piece of advice? And then I'll have one more use case scenario for you.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

Great, great, great question. So if people can really hear me on this this part here, this is this is really important to at least be aware of this mentally, okay? So we have three major biological markers, all of us, right? Especially when we're at that middle stage of 40, 50, 60 years old. Here are the three markers: muscle and strength, heart and cardiorespiratory health, in

Why More Cardio Can Backfire

SPEAKER_03 27:35

metabolic vitality. Those three markers right there literally determine how long you're gonna live and the quality of life you're gonna live. Most people fail at the muscle part. So you have to have a strategy on how am I going to, at 65 years old, how am I going to actually at least maintain the muscle mass I have on my body because it's the most important tissue on your body. But if you really have a higher level program, you actually could put three or four pounds, maybe five or six pounds of muscle back under your body. So the protocols now in your resistance training protocols have to become more specific. Meaning you have to, you have to up your game with how you're lifting weights and using cables and rubber bands. Most people miss that mark. And let me just give you a quick example of what I mean. So most people will take cardiovascular work, right? You go to Plant Fitness or you walk into these big gyms and there's 60 treadmills. Or they have the Apple Watch and they get their 10,000 steps in every day, which is great, right? So here's what happens when you don't have enough of the right resistance training, and you're making your cardiovascular your primary workout protocol. So you get into your cardiovascular work, which is important. It's one of the pieces of the fitness quadrant, right? We have to understand how to practice it the right way. So here's what happens is they get going on their cardio, and then maybe they'll get a little nervous, like I I got to start working out more because I don't feel as strong, or I want to lose a little bit more fat because I'm at this plateau. I can't break it. So they'll do more cardio work, right? It's easy. You go in, jump on the treadmill, press 45 minutes, whatever you're doing, and you'll add another day or two of it because you want to really get into it a little bit more. So here's what's really happening is during your cardiobile, you need glycogen in your body to fuel that activity, right? So after you run out of glycogen, your body starts to require more glycogen, and it's gonna get it from breaking muscle down. It starts to hunt for nutrient-dense tissue in your body, which is muscle, and it's after eight amino acids in your muscle. So it breaks the muscle down, pulls it through the liver, and the liver makes glycogen out of it. So you have a worthy endeavor where you're trying harder, maybe a little bit more cardio, or you're lifting weights in a real high rep range, which is cardio. It's not muscle building when you're doing that. So you're actually losing muscle mass off your body when you're putting in all this effort to doing a more of a cardiovascular-driven workout, which you can do with weights as well. If you're if you're a high rep range weightlifter, you're not building muscle. There's got to be a specific window that you're in in order to have an adaptative mode for that muscle to grow. And I talk about it in my book, but I also, of course, teach it to everybody on what that means. What are the rep ranges? And by the way, the workouts that we we utilize, right? I have another trademark system called MIT, modified interval training with resistance. The workouts are 40 minutes long. That's it. Twice a week, maybe three days a week, if you really want to get into your resistance training a little bit more and gain a little bit more muscle. So it's not this grueling 90 minutes in the gym. It's not like that. It's doing it in a specific way that actually spikes muscle growth. And this is important for people to know because you are losing a couple pounds of muscle every year once you turn 50 years old. You're losing muscle. So you have to have a strategy to push back against that. So a guy like you, Jay, you you'd have a little bit more of an elevated way to do your resistance training protocols. I teach trainers how to do this, I teach groups and all that sort of stuff. It works. I've got several hundred people I've trained, and uh the comments and that I get and the testimonials that are I don't even ask for them, and they send them in, and it's it's what gets me up in the morning because I'm taking their life and they're bringing my story into their story of their life, and they're using what I'm teaching them. And that to me is a glorious gift from God in my eyes to be in a position to be able to do that for people. Don't you want to live 10 more years? I always ask people that, and you you can if you do the right things, all right?

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Yeah, yeah. I and I would say I don't want to live 10 more years unless those are 10 healthy years.

SPEAKER_03 32:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Right? Yes, right. There's no point of living long if it's not a healthy long 100%.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

We want quality years. We don't want we don't want to be hooked up to a machine and live to where 120. That's right. Let's go out and do things, hike, get on the beach, and buy, but you gotta you gotta be healthy to do that. I want to do it in my 80s. I want to be climbing mountains, and my my kids are in their mid-20s and they were out of the house, a couple of them are back right now, which we'll talk about in a second, which is great. But I want to be with their kids, hitting a tennis ball, surfing at the beach when I'm in my 70s and 80s. Yeah. If there's a way to do that, right.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

There is, there is, 100%, 100%. Okay, so the next scenario is somebody who is they've got it dialed in. Let's say they're in their 70s, like mid to what's called early to mid-70s, and they have it dialed in, right? They've done everything we've talked about to this point, they're in pretty good shape. Then they're thinking, okay, do I still need to focus on strength, flexibility, balance? Is it one or more? Is there something different? Think of that type person and be like, okay, what's the recommendation there?

SPEAKER_03 33:53

Uh so depending, and so all of us, no matter who it is, right? We all feel like we had to sit down and say, I could wish for a few more things with my my physical wellness. And we all have a guy like UJ or me, I have 10 more things than I want, right? Exactly. So we all really want a little bit more, and that's the competitive thing that we all have inside of us, right? If somebody

Staying Dialed In During Your 70s

SPEAKER_03 34:20

is really dialed in and they have all that stuff, I tell them, keep keep doing what you're doing. Keep doing what you're doing. Maybe you take somebody like that and say, all right, let's break the year up into three segments. We have four-year blocks called macrocycles. And let's let's let's take a four-month block and let's look at your body. What would you want to change about your physical look or maybe your strength? This is mostly guys, I'd like to have a bigger chest. Women are like, I want a tighter button legs, right? So we all have that thing that we're we're never really satisfied. So I'd say, let's design a four-month protocol for you to get that chest bigger and stronger and shape a little bit differently. Or a woman, a woman, let's get you a little bit more muscular from the from the belly button down. And let's focus on that just for four months. Make it a little bit of a small little journey that they can focus on, and they can have some short-term goals, right? That's one way I do it with people. The other way is they don't want to do that. Listen, stay with what you're doing, but start getting a little bit more dialed into nature. Get out on the beach, get out on a mountain, breathe the fresh air, walk around with no shoes on so you can earth and get those things for me are becoming less and less practiced the more technologically advanced weal into nature, okay? Go watch a sunset, go get up at 5 a.m., watch the sun come up, sit there with a coffee or whatever you drink, and just feel it. Because the more computers we have, the more phones we have. To me, it's it's becoming a problem. And we we get sucked into these vacuums. Even people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, they start to get on Instagram and Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

Sure. I see it with my mom. My mom's on Facebook nonstop. I feel like she's like back being like 14 years old.

SPEAKER_03 36:25

Just as much as it sucks in an 11-year-old, it can do the same thing if you're 85 and you can get sucked into that. So I say shut your phone off for an hour a day and go out in nature, get into something, right? So I'm big on that. I'm big on friends, social, social stuff.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Social connection is huge.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

You know, get a posse. I talk about it in my book. Get a posse that has that similar desire to be healthy and learn some new stuff with your health and fitness, especially if you're an empty nester, which I have a ton of, right? And so they really get serious about their fitness and their nutrition and all the stuff that I do. That's one of the ways we've grown so much as a as a as a longevity company, is because people more and more, you know, I tell them, get selfish. Get three hours a week, start working on yourself. Yes, you learn about it. Yeah, it's so cool. And that if you get a group of friends, three, four, five, six friends, you're all training together. I have some people that contact me. Uh, we get rolling on on a pri I write private programs for them. And after about a month, they are so into it. Their friends are like, who are you working with? You're teaching so they end up coming on board. And what I do is I write programs for two or three of them can train together, and they have this little group. I love that. Start working together. It's to me, we're all connected. In some way, Jay, we just met, but you affect me, I affect you. We're a society, and we have to have those those connections to make the world better. And it always starts with us, our our our personal empowerment, right? That's the only way we can make the world better, our our local town we live in, our region better. You gotta be strong and healthy, you've got to have good coping skills, you have to be able to have the energy to outlast aging. Are you strong enough to age well?

SPEAKER_01 38:31

That's a question I ask people. That's a fantastic question. Are you strong enough to age well? But and that's both mentally and physically.

SPEAKER_03 38:38

Mentally and physically, right? So that's a that's a hard-hitting question. If somebody is 70 and they really think about the question I just asked, most people will say, you know what, I don't feel like I am. But you know what? There are solutions for you. There are things you can do to have a really good answer to that question. And it's at the end of the day, once it becomes a lifestyle, which takes about it takes about eight weeks, maybe 12, to get real habit change and get into a little bit of a momentum. So if you get that courage to stick to a good program, I'm telling you, I have seen it turn people around hundreds of times where they really start to understand how to do this stuff right. And uh the only thing I ask of them, I ask it of everybody, when you go through these programs with me and I show you this stuff, I'm requiring you to show a loved one. Show your spouse, show a good friend, show your kids how to do this stuff the right way. And those ripples in that pond, man, can last far beyond me. Okay. That's the goal, right? Yeah, that's the goal, right? Let's get people tuned into this stuff. Society doesn't teach you this stuff. Your food supply is mostly toxic, the water supply is toxic. You gotta get out of that little matrix and learn how to do do these things the right way. And uh, once people really get turned onto that, most of them become good friends with with me. And uh I'm I'm blessed.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

I am I'm so thankful for that. That's so good. So good. All right, let's drive this home for people, Tim. All right, yeah. So can explain to me what happens to the human body when people turn 50, but particularly as it relates to muscle loss and the impact on overall health. Let's drive it home for folks.

SPEAKER_03 40:26

Another great question. So when we're young, 20s, 30s, even early 40s, right? We have our systems in our body that are still at high reservoir levels, right? We have testosterone, we have human growth hormone

What Really Changes After 50

SPEAKER_03 40:45

that produced out of the pituitary gland. We have uh what are called uh interleukins, which are uh hormones in our body, are in abundance. I call it the currency of the human body. We our bank accounts are full. Our physical bank accounts are full when we're young, right? When we're 22, we can go out and and and play that Thanksgiving football game for two hours, right? Remember those days, right?

SPEAKER_01 41:12

I do remember that. I remember doing it in my in my 40s and I was paying the price the next day, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:18

We don't really feel it the next day when we're 22, but when we're 40 or 50, maybe you skip it. Wait a minute. I don't I'm not sure if I want to get in there and do that because that's when the rolled angles and the sore back and you just get beat up. One of the reasons for that is because we don't have the physical bank accounts anymore of the repair items in our body. Okay. So we start to lose the ability to recover quicker because we don't have that, right? So most people, when they're around 55 or 60, they almost become, unfortunately, bankrupt because they have such low levels of all those youthful hormones in our body. Right. So we want to turn that around. This is why I'm saying one of the greatest ways to start triggering those hormonal changes in your body is through a good, healthy supplementation program. Now, if if you just think about that, how do we increase testosterone levels as a guy? How do we increase synovial fluid? What is synovial fluid? Synovial fluid is in our joints. It's the lubrication in our joints. We have we have a ton of it when we're young. By the time we heard it hit in our 50s or 60s, our bodies don't produce as much synovial fluid. That's how our joints get stiff. Our range of motion gets less and less over the years. By the time you're 70, people, right? They don't turn their head to look. They have to turn their whole body. I do this when I do seminars, right? And everyone's laughing, going, Yeah, that's me. So synovial fluid is triggered by good nutrition, but it's triggered by mobility, which mobility is a part of resistance training. It's putting enough tension on the joints where we have these little things in our connective tissue called synovocytes. Sonovocytes, when there's enough tension on them, they start to produce synovial fluid, which is the lubricant, right? Think of an engine that's got enough oil in it, it runs well. When you when you don't have any oil in the engine, you're you're at a danger point. Our bodies are the same way. So these are the systems we lose, right? So we want to make sure we're triggering our body the right way so we have synovial fluid. We we're working ranges of motion and all that sort of stuff. These are important pieces. Of course, we can't go into all of it, but uh, you know, supplementation and getting the right, and this is why we talked about the blood work. If people are inclined to do that, I I can't I can't scream loud enough at them to go do it. These things become really important. Of of restoring your physical currency. And I talk about it in that way in the book. Don't become bankrupt physically. Your 401k. It's a tragedy. You turn 65, you got 2 million in your 401k, your house is paid for, your kids are out of the house, but you're physically bankrupt. What a bummer.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I I totally agree on a couple points here. The blood work, I haven't done the biomarker one, but I've done the FIT 176, which kind of told me everything like foods that will enhance inflammation in my body. My body doesn't like as much. So yep, staying away from beef and dairy is like my go-to like now because I know those things are going to give me a lot of grief. And I can feel it. And so it's brilliant. So I agree with you there on learning what's going on inside your body. But also the wealth piece. People think of wealth as just being financial, but we're talking financial wealth, physical wealth, mental health, relation health, spiritual wealth. Wealth, wealth, wealth, wealth, wealth, not just money. So I love the points that you're hitting on here.

SPEAKER_03 45:05

It's a combination, really good fitness. It's not just cardio. It's not just eating right. It's not just lifting some weights. It's lifting weights the right way. It's doing the right cardio protocols. It's a combination game. A great car. It's not just an engine without wheels. It has to have wheels in it. So I I use those analogies so people can start to think a little bit differently about a strategy for longevity. And it's not that hard. What's hard is the right knowledge. And it's it's it's it's it's in the palm of your hands. The information's out there, it has to be assembled the right way, and then you have to practice it. And that comes with good coaching, good systems. And uh it's such an important thing. It's the real wealth is to have everything working great when you're in your 60s, 70s. Let's face it. If you can't get out of bed or if you're fearing walking downstairs or walking up a flight of stairs because you don't have those faculties anymore, I don't care if you get 10 million bucks in your 401k. You can't get up a flight of stairs.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:16

Let's balance it out here. Let's let's put some effort in.

SPEAKER_01 46:19

I like that. The balance piece, super important.

SPEAKER_03 46:22

Really important, right?

SPEAKER_01 46:23

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, you mentioned it. I love everything we've talked about so far, but let's get into your story a little bit. You mentioned it before, you're an empty nester. I heard you said you have one at home. You're you're boomerang right now. Tell me a little bit more about that.

SPEAKER_03 46:36

Oh man, am I boomeranging? And uh so I I'm a little bit different, I think maybe not, but uh I came from uh a pretty pretty hard upbringing, so I didn't have any relationship with my dad at all. Okay, I still don't, even though I've forgiven him and all that sort of thing.

Empty Nesting And Boomerang Kids

SPEAKER_03 46:55

It's it's uh it's still a mess. So when I had my first son, Maxwell, born in the hospital, I was looking at him like, okay, okay, now what? All right, cool. Where's the where's the user's manual? Young age, and we all go through it when we're young and all that stuff. And uh the first thing I I I I swore I would never do is I I would never hit him the way I was hit when I was little. Okay, and uh the second thing uh is to is to love him beyond anything imaginable compared to what I was used to. And uh in that process, I had a second kid, Jesse. Same thing. I'm never gonna lay a hand. How could you lay a hand on a four-year-old, five-year-old? They're in their mid-20s now. Um Max is out of the house, he comes in every now and then for a month. He's a BU graduate uh in physics, has an incredible company at 26 years old. He's created. And I my heart aches for him when he's not here. He travels the world, he's gone for three, four, six months at a time. And I'm the biggest crybaby that I want my kids around me, right? Right there with you. Some people aren't like that, right? I I'm like, man, I can't wait to get the email or text from him. Jesse is is is 23. He's still here in the house. He had his own apartment for a while in Boston. House was completely empty, which was fine. My wife, who's my trading partner, we're we're we're real into our fitness and well-being and all that stuff. She's in the book and all that. But it's great. We do our thing, but some nights we're like, yeah, I really miss the books. I I I would love to get to get a meal and come home and hang out with them or or go walk on the beach. And you know, I hate it when they're not in the house, but sometimes I'm like, man, it's just I just need the house alone. Give me this thing. So on both sides of the equation. Yeah, a little bit of balance, a little bit of balance. Yeah, yeah. So I really, really miss my kids when they're not around. And I I I ate for them. I actually work out with them a lot. So we have that thing together where we've trained with each other in the gym, outside of the gym. I'm a I'm a martial artist, uh jujitsu guy. Um, so my two boys not many fathers and sons have that thing that they grew up with, pounding each other and training and all that stuff. So we have that that connection as well. It's it's really cool to talk about that stuff when they're in a different country and they're doing some workouts and jujitsu and things they learned. So it's yeah, I've been very fortunate. I've been very thankful for my relationship with them. But when when the when the nest is empty, yeah, I've got I can do anything I want. The house is clean. Knock knock on wood. The dishes are always done, right? But so I I I do wait for them when they're here, it's great, but then it'll build like uh you gotta clean up after you. It never changes. So I'm I'm I'm both ends of the spectrum on it. I I I embrace both sides of it. Um I I would feel like probably most most moms and dads do the same thing, right?

SPEAKER_01 50:27

Yo, a hundred percent, right? It's like it's you love it when they're here, it's okay when they're not, it's you can love it when they're not. This is just a wide range of spectrum of different feelings that people experience. When they hit emptiness, we're in the middle of it, when it's a little bit later in life. Things change when they find their significant others. So it's I but now when I look at it, people think empty nesting is like just a moment in time when the kids leave, but it's really from like when the kids pre-launch, launch, and then until you decide to retire, or you or your partner or spouse decide to retire. Like to me, that's empty nesting. Yeah, yeah. Then it's retirement after that. But nobody really talks about this in between time. But for me, like the most compelling thing, which is why I loved having you on the show today, was like, this is the time to do exactly what we're talking about. What you were talking about today is get yourself set up.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

Yeah.

unknown 51:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 51:17

You've been spending your life getting ready for retirement from a financial standpoint. Let's do it from a physical, mental, well-being standpoint, too.

SPEAKER_03 51:24

Yeah, it it really I I've seen so many people, as we talk about during our discussion. I've seen so many people get into that quote unquote retirement phase. And most people are just they're like, I don't know what to do with myself. And so they'll take up uh a real adequate fitness regimen, and they really get into it, and that that kind of can live with you throughout the week. It's not just when you're doing your 45-minute workout, it's through my wife and I are huge cooks. We're chefs. We we get into all different types of one one day. It's Japanese food we'll be making, and we have a we have a blast. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 52:09

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 52:10

We make it healthy food, right? And then next it's Mexican food. And then we'll so we we crank in the music and we're we're making it, and we eat a real healthy, nutritious meal, but we'll we'll cooking ourselves and we'll and then we'll have some friends over and all that. So we enjoy the fitness journey uh inside of even cooking and and staying on that healthy kick of uh eating the right way, even though we're you know we're tweaking recipes we find and all that stuff. So we make it fun, and uh that that's part of the whole lifestyle journey that is also doing activities that center around being being healthy.

SPEAKER_02 52:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:49

We're aggressive about it. We we we really we really commit to it. And uh we never we never do it halfway. And I always tell people, look, when you cut your grass in the summer, right, do you cut half of it? Or if you're gonna paint your house, even

Preemptive Health Planning For Retirement

SPEAKER_03 53:05

though you're not doing it, would you just paint half of it? No, you do the whole thing. Do the whole thing, you know, and that is where you can really receive the benefits, and most people know this, right? You live that life where you you're you're you're complete, and you never have questions about what you've done, or I could have done it better. Dive in, do it the right way, learn it the right way, and uh, it gets fulfilling and and and you get that sense of enrichment. And I see physical wellness, longevity practices as such a centerpiece to all of it, because without it, the walks are harder. Uh if you don't have the energy to go on the beach and take a walk or a swim when there's a storm and body surf the waves or hike a mountain, you just don't have the energy for that stuff anymore. And uh I'm telling people, you can gain that energy back if you really want to do it, if you really take an audit of your life and your physical wellness, always is something that you're gonna have to answer to. And I'll leave you with this uh fitness and well-being will become your number one priority, whether it is or isn't at this moment. It will be your number one priority, how well you are. You may not be thinking about it when you're 60 or 50 or 40, or 70. When you get slammed with that big-time nosedive, it will be your number one priority, is your wellness. And I tell people, be preemptive, hear out ahead of it, so you have the strength to endure through what we know, aging. We we have challenges. We have to be ready for them. Don't do it when you need it, do it before you need it. It's just like good financial planning, man. You you gotta you gotta plan for this stuff, right? I just tell people all the time be preemptive, preemptive, find the right knowledge base. There's a lot of misinformation out there on this stuff. Just go on to YouTube and Instagram, and you'll find 10,000 people telling you how to do something. But the bottom line is every industry has really good coaching and really bad coaching. So get your source right and you'll you'll you'll be way better off about it. I appreciate that, Tim.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

You mentioned a little bit about how fitness could be fulfilling, and this conversation has been hugely fulfilling for me and trying to figure out what comes next for myself. And I hope my audience gets to take a little bit away from that as well. I have two closing questions for you. One, you talked about, I don't think we talked about that quadrant, rest and recovery. My question for you is naps, pros or con? Total pro. Total pro?

SPEAKER_03 56:02

Total pro. Obviously, we we want to get our seven-ish, seven to eight hours a night, right? Just remember this if your fitness practices start to pick up because you start getting into it, that

Naps, Honesty, And The Goat Within

SPEAKER_03 56:15

means you need to have a little bit different strategy on your recovery, right? Your body needs a little bit more recovery if you're a little bit more vigorous on your on your fitness training. I'm a big time reader. I love an afternoon nap. Give me a 30-minute recharge of my battery, man. All right, give me a good author to read and gets my mind off everything. Oh, I'm a huge, huge napper. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 56:41

I love it. I love it. Not gonna lie, a little transparency. I had a 30-minute nap before we hopped on this call because it was my time of day to get it done.

SPEAKER_03 56:48

That a boy, that's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 56:49

Yep. And but before I let you go, like the I think the biggest one is what have you learned about yourself through this journey? Everything that you've done around your fitness, the the goat within, the work that you do, what's the biggest thing you've learned about yourself? Honesty.

SPEAKER_03 57:04

If if you really, really, really get honest with yourself on some of the things that you want, I I I I really think you could get to the core issues that end up affecting everybody around you. If you don't get to them and you skirt over them, right? This obviously goes beyond fitness and longevity practices. Somebody else is going to write your story for you, and you're not really gonna become the person you want to be. So the honesty, take an audit of yourself. There's no better way to do it inside the fitness arena that we've talked about, but I think it affects your whole life, and your words matter to everybody around you, whether you realize it or not, your actions matter. I'm saying become fit, become somebody that has undeniable energy reserves, it makes you a stronger person. And I believe you make better decisions, you affect people in a more positive way around you. You just become that person. And that's actually how I wrote how we came up with the title of the book, the goat within. There's greatness in all of us. How do you get to that greatness inside of us, right? I I do it with my fitness journey that now has turned into working with people all over the place. But honesty, it's you've got to be honest with yourself and don't lie to yourself about how what you really want and how you're really gonna get there.

SPEAKER_01 58:31

I love that. Tim, thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your story and your journey and what you do and the insights. They've been incredibly valuable for me. I know, probably for my audience as well. I just really appreciate you coming on this emptiness life.

SPEAKER_03 58:44

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And I hope everybody uh grabbed uh grabbed some nuggets today and find me on my website.

SPEAKER_01 58:53

I don't know if you're gonna put it out there, but it's uh put it all in the show notes where to find you, your book, all the good things.

SPEAKER_03 58:59

Anybody chime in? If you have a question, reach out and ask me. I'm here to help. Awesome. Thanks, Tim. Excellent.

Final Takeaways And How To Connect

SPEAKER_03 59:05

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 59:08

Welcome to this Empty Nest Life, the podcast dedicated to helping you embrace this transformative season with purpose, passion, and joy. In each episode, we explore stories, strategies, and insights to help turn your empty nest into an exciting new chapter. Whether you're redefining your identity, pursuing new passions, or finding peace in the pause, you're in the right place. Here's your host, the Empty Nest Coach, Jay Ramsden,