Assess Fitness with Huberman Labs and Dr. Andy Galprin

Dr. Andrew Huberman of Stanford University and the Huberman Lab podcast continued his Guest series this week with Dr. Andy Galpin, Professor of Kinesiology at California State University, Fullerton, and one of the foremost experts in the world on the science and application of methods to increase strength, hypertrophy and endurance performance.

The 9 areas of physiological adaptation podcast is 2 hours long and also focuses on how to assess & improve all aspects of your fitness.

Listen: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Klocked has done a breakdown of the podcast that includes an interactive guide to the episode. For runners, this podcast has important information related to base building and overall balance between strength, power, endurance, and speed. For fitness enthusiasts, the episode also has a great overview of the history of fitness, bodybuilding, and endurance sports. For those that know how research in sports and fitness specific to women is lacking, there is a great discussion on that too (57:50).

Galpin and Huberman talk about 9 areas for physiological adaptation. (6:11) These are quickly summarized in about 3 minutes starting at around 6:11 into the podcast. The most important part for those interested in longevity or building muscle or running faster or longer is the section on assessment that begins at about 1:07:39

1. Skill or Technique - not much here for runners

2. Speed - not much here for runners

3. Power* - great assessment protocols see table below

4. Strength* - great assessment protocols see table below

5. Muscular Endurance* -great assessment protocols see table below

6. Muscular Hypertrophy

7. Anaerobic Capacity* - great assessment protocols see table below

8. Maximal Aerobic Capacity* - great assessment protocols see table below

9. Long Duration* - great assessment protocols for beginning runners, see table below

For runners that want to listen to the podcast to improve and assess their running, only the adaptations marked with * are covered in enough detail to have any takeaways. The following table summarizes the key ways to assess and measure adaptations.

Adaptation	Assessment	Male metric	Female metric	Podcast Link
Power	Broad Jump	Height	15% < height	​1:13:07
​Power	Vertical Jump	20 inches	15 inches	​1:15:16
Strength	​Dead Hang	60 seconds	60 seconds	1:18:48
Muscular Endurance	Plank	60 seconds	60 seconds	1:29:40
​Muscular Endurance	Push Ups	25	15	1:30:12
Anaerobic Capacity	Max Heart Rate Recovery	30 beats per minute	30 beats per minute	1:36:26
Maximal Aerobic Capacity	VO2 Max	Max distance in 12 minutes	Max distance in 12 minutes	1:39:31
Long Duration	Easy run with no interruption	30 minutes	30 minutes	1:42:46

The idea discussed in the podcast is that by assessing the above over the next week, you can determine areas of strength and weakness. Any weakness can be focused on in your training. So if your standing long jump is falling short, focus on activities that increase your power. Drs. Huberman and Galprin did not take that next step, yet, on how to address assessed weaknesses. Maybe the next episode.

What would you do if your broad jump was weak? More hills? Not doing 15-25 push-ups? Time to pull out the dumbbells?