Essentials: How to Assess & Improve All Aspects of Your Fitness | Dr. Andy Galpin
Huberman and Dr. Andy Galpin walk through a nine-component framework for assessing fitness, offering specific tests and benchmarks anyone can use without a lab.
The gist
-
Record yourself doing four basic push and pull movements, then score symmetry, stability, and range of motion on a 0-3 scale to spot injury risks early.
-
A dead hang for 30 to 60 seconds tests grip strength, which Galpin says correlates with overall health and longevity.
-
Hold a goblet squat at the bottom position with half your body weight for 45 seconds to test leg strength, core stability, and low-back strength.
-
Run the full battery once a year over 2 to 3 days, ordering tests from least to most fatiguing to get accurate baselines across all nine areas.
Andy Galpin. recommends it
"Another one that you can actually do is just a dead hang. You can hold on to any bar, ideally one that is thin enough to where you can wrap your whole hand around it, something like going to the gym and jumping on any pull-up bar. In general, we should be able to hang for a mi..."
▶ Play at 12:443 creators recommend it, including Joe Rogan and Peter Attia.
See all on the Dead hang page
Andy Galpin. recommends it
"Another one I like a lot here is simply a front squat or a goblet squat hold. You're going to hold a weight in front of your chest — a kettlebell is great here, a dumbbell is fine — and you want to hold about half of your body weight, go all the way to the bottom position, and..."
▶ Play at 15:35What they recommend · 6 picks
"Another one I like a lot here is simply a front squat or a goblet squat hold. You're going to hold a weight in front of your chest — a kettlebell is great here, a dumbbell is fi..."
"Your heart rate recovery is the better metric. I want you to get up to a maximum heart rate and then test your heart rate recovery. Within 60 seconds, you should have — at half ..."
"The accessible version here is a simple broad jump. Stand in a normal position, jump out as far in front of you as you possibly can and measure the distance between where you st..."
Andrew, Andy, Joe and Tim agree on 30 things
See what they all use, in their own words. Paid ads are left out.
See what they all swear by Or pick your own peopleAlso mentioned
Related episodes
Episodes covering similar topics
More from Andrew Huberman