Brett Boettcher

I played college basketball, became a doctor, and treated 1,458 patients, from professional athletes to many with chronic diseases.

Here’s everything I know about fitness:

1) If they could package the benefits of exercise into a pill, it’d be the biggest event in history. 

2) There is no “best way” to train; just do what works best for you.

3) Simple is always better than complicated, even for high-level athletes.

4) Exercise is less about the amount of weight moved and more about properly fatiguing the muscle.

5) You’d get better results if you didn’t change up your workouts for at least 12 weeks.

6) The best exercise for one person may not be the best one for you. Biomechanics vary greatly from one person to another based on height, movement patterns, torso, and limb length.

7) The only person you are competing with in the gym is the person you were the last time you did the same workout.

8) Most common aches and pains are due to inactivity and muscle weakness and would go away with basic programming.

9) Your joints get nourished when they are moved.

10) Sitting is the most common cause of most neck and back pain.

11) You get 50% of the benefits of exercise by just going from the couch to basic movement.

12) Walking will do more for your recovery than any BS supplements they are selling you.

13) Strengthening your core and glutes will fix most low back symptoms.

14) The best programs involve a combination of compound (multi-joint) exercises and a few isolated exercises.

15) If you aren’t losing weight, you are eating too many calories. Likely in the form of the wrong foods.

16) Neglecting cardio to focus on your strength is like neglecting your car engine to focus on the paint job.

17) Unless it’s your job, fitness and nutrition should fit into your life rather than fitting your life into your fitness and nutrition.

18) Sometimes more rest is what’s needed to break through plateaus. Deload weeks are part of any good training program.

19) Fitness is a combination of strength, endurance, and mobility. Resistance training allows you to do all three at once, but it should be complimented with the others.

20) Machines can be just as effective as any other exercise for a particular muscle group.

21) Slowing down your reps will lead to a better workout and a lower risk of injury.

22) The weight you lift is not important compared to the fatigue of the target muscle. You are selecting the weight for exercise, not competitive lifting.

23) You want to hit each muscle group 2+ times per week for optimal results.

24) There is no “best exercise.” You can get the same muscle strong in 100 different ways.

25) Barbells are the gold standard for strength, yet you can get really strong with little to no equipment.

26) You can lift weights 2 days per week or 7 days per week. The optimal plan is one you can stick to consistently.

27) Put the work in now so you can still get out of a chair on your own later.

28) Beginners will make considerably more progress than advanced lifters in the gym. You should at least take advantage of those initial results for your metabolic health in the long term.

29) You can get strong using only your body weight. It may not be perfectly optimal, but it’s possible.

30) Your diet and fitness plan should be enhancing your life, or you are doing something wrong. What’s the point of trying to live longer if it’s making your life miserable?

31) Exercise is a stress. Most people don’t get enough of it, but too much isn’t always better.

32) The most important workouts are the ones you show up to when you don’t want to.

33) The most important reps are the last two that you didn’t know you could do.

35) You don’t need to take a preworkout or carb up before a 30-minute exercise session; you just need a little grit.

36) There’s no benefit to eating immediately after a lift. You’ll get the same results from eating within a 3–4 hour window post-workout.

37) Sprints, hills, and slow jogs will make you a better runner.

Moderate-paced running is a lot of work for little results.

38) Your calf muscles and core are endurance-based muscles. They can be trained more frequently and may benefit from higher reps to grow.

39) Sit-ups are a terrible place to start for building core strength and are hard on the average person’s back and neck; try planks instead.

40) Older individuals typically benefit from having additional rest days between hard workout sessions.

41) A higher frequency and volume of exercise is only beneficial if you can recover from it. The guys that look like freaks work hard but are genetically capable of recovering from the increased effort.

42) The core’s job 99% of the time is to prevent movement, similar to a plank, but most core exercises involve moving it rather than stabilizing it.

43) Running 2 days and lifting 2 days weekly will get you ahead of 99% of fitness plans that overdue one or the other.

44) Exercise alone is a terrible weight-loss strategy. But it can be very useful for body recomposition.

45) If you can’t do pull-ups for reps, nobody cares how much you can lift. You are too heavy.

46) Fitness is more important to teach your children about than money; they’ll make more money, but they only get one body.

47) If you want to help your family get healthy, lead from the front and show them; don’t tell them.

Are you looking to simplify health and nutrition, avoid mainstream propaganda, and lose 20+ pounds?

My brother @chrisboettcher9 and I have helped over 150+ men do exactly that!

If you're interested in making a serious change, get our FREE guide below:
https://go.brother2brotheru.com/ultimate-guide-email-sign-up

The most important lab value that your doctor never checks:

Fasting insulin.

Here’s why testing for it today could save your life: 

What is insulin?

When your food is broken down into glucose, this creates a natural rise in blood sugar.

Insulin is a hormone released by the pancreas. Like a key, it unlocks the doors of your muscle, fat and liver cells so glucose can enter. 

It’s normal for blood sugar to rise and fall with meals. But what you eat determines the intensity of the spikes.

Insulin helps bring blood sugar levels back toward baseline. The process repeats at your next meal or snack.

Riding this constant roller coaster can eventually lead to...

Early Insulin Resistance

This develops over the course of 5-15 years.
Chronic exposure to too much insulin desensitizes the insulin receptors.

Just like a drug addict requires more drug, the body requires more insulin to remove sugar from the blood stream. 

The result? The insulin levels go up every year, but blood glucose remains stable.

If you tested your fasting glucose it might come back normal.

But if you require substantially more insulin to keep sugar in the normal range, (hyperinsulinemia) your risk of cancer, heart disease and mortality all rise.

Another year like this and more insulin is no longer able to stabilize your blood sugar level.

You either can't produce enough anymore or your body stops responding as well to the insulin you do produce.

Your blood sugar turns from the normal green line upward to the red line. 

Seemingly overnight you are diagnosed with pre diabetes or type II diabetes after being  "healthy" for a decade before.

Fasting glucose is a LAGGING indicator of health. It's fine to test, but just because it's normal doesn't mean you aren't requiring more insulin to keep it normal. 

Insulin is a LEADING indicator.

A fasting insulin score or better yet, a HOMA-IR score will alert you if your insulin resistance is worsening BEFORE you become prediabetic or diabetic.

This serves as a baseline measurement to determine if your metabolic health is improving or worsening year over year.

Thanks for reading.

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Lowering insulin is mostly about improving on what you eat.

Our Grocery Guide is designed to help you choose the best foods to keep your family healthy.

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You don't need a fancy gym to get strong. 

Use these 7 simple exercises to hit every muscle group in the body without any equipment.

(Bookmark this for your next travel day) 

1) Wall Sit

It can be hard to hit a leg workout without equipment.

Wall sits make it easy and safe for everyone

-Aim for 2 minutes
-then adjust depth
-then add weight 

2) Push-up

Everybody knows the push up but it's still underrated.

Works the chest, shoulders, lats, serratus and core.
-Move slow and controlled
-Full Range of motion

Progress up to 30 reps then choose a more challenging version. 

3) Bulgarian Split Squat

Get a great workout with zero weight needed. Use a chair or bed to elevate your back leg.

-Move slow and controlled and pause at the bottom
-Torso angle and shin angle should match
-The back leg is just a balance kickstand

Take it close to failure. 

4) Side Plank

These will hit your hip abductors, obliques, and lats.

Keep your shoulders, hips, and ankles in a straight line. Add a leg lift to make it harder or make it easier from your knees

Set a goal of 1 minute each side, then pick a harder variation. 

5) Single Leg Bridge

An important exercise to reengage the glutes after hours of sitting.

Hold a pause at the top to make it more challenging and work toward failure.

If this is too challenging, stick with double leg variations. 

6) Single leg deadlift

Glutes, hamstring, and lumbar strength will make you a stronger, faster runner.

-Slight bend in the knee
-Hinge at the hip
-Corkscrew your right foot to the floor clockwise

Slower reps = minimal weight needed 

7) Pull-up

It's too good of an exercise to leave off the bodyweight list. This might not be an option given lack of equipment.

And if you can't do your first pull-up, skip it for now. I'll drop a future thread to help get you there. 

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