Barbell Shrugged - A Doctor’s Journey to Optimizing Health and Performance w/ Dr. Mark Farmer, Anders Varner, and Doug Larson #752

Episode Date: June 19, 2024

Dr. Mark Farmer, born in London, England, is a distinguished orthopedic surgeon specializing in knee and shoulder surgery. After earning his undergraduate and medical degrees from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, he completed his residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, followed by a Sports Medicine Fellowship at Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA. Now in private practice in Fort Myers, FL, Dr. Farmer is also developing a functional health and optimization program. An avid traveler, skier, and health enthusiast, he enjoys spending time with his wife Joann and their two sons, Oliver and Isaac. Work with RAPID Health Optimization Work With Dr. Mark Farmer Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram Coach Travis Mash on Instagram

Shrugged family, this week on Barbell Shrugged, Dr. Mark Farmer. He is one of our favorite human beings in the entire world. Mark's been with us at Rapid Health and Performance for Rapid Health Optimization for the better part of a year now. And every time I talk to this man, as you are going to hear in this podcast, the man's life has changed enormously. And we have unlocked an amount of energy and training performance and health and vibrance and vitality and he's just one of those people every time you talk to him he makes your life better because

you just go how do I meet that guy on his level of excitement for life what's very very cool about this is mark has been a doctor he's an orthopedic surgeon he's been in the medical world for his whole life and always wondered kind of like where the next level was. And not only has he had phenomenal results inside rapid health optimization, but he is also taking a lot of the lessons he's learned and things that we do here and we'll be integrating them into his clinic in Florida, kind of in the brick and mortar setting, which is beyond incredible to be able to not only just come in and get the results for himself, but also be able to pass the message on and bring his entire practice into this new world

that he has found so much value in. And in this show, he's going to tell his story because we we just love having him one and two this is a a testament more than a testimonial it is a testament to what it can be like when you have your training in nutrition and supplementation and your sleep and your stress and recovery all really cooked into a lifestyle and making those daily habits just stacking the bricks on top of each other to take your health and performance to the next level and actually doing the work. And not only is this show going to be exemplary of the amount of energy and excitement that he has for life, but it's also just a testament to the hard work that one must

go through to build the habits to get the results that you're looking for when it comes to these things. I love having Mark in the program. I talk to him a good amount and every single time, like I said at the beginning of this, it just makes you happier. He's a happy human being and he loves his life and the fact that we get to be a part of this journey and kind of help him going forward. There's nothing better than hearing him at 60 plus years old telling you that he's kicking his kids butts that are in their 20s down the ski mountain every year or this past winter and that they can't keep up with him. And then he's just recovered and ready to go the next day. And he's just taking it to his younger kids,

which is absolutely phenomenal. Makes me happy. As happy as always friends if you like what you hear in this uh dr andy galpin has just put out a brand new video over at rapidehealthreport.com the three steps to unlocking your true physiological potential really it's the step-by-step guide to exactly what we do here at rapid health and Performance and what you can expect coming into our program and why we get such good results for our clients. You can access that free video over at rapidhealthreport.com. Friends, let's get into the show. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Anders Varner, Doug Larson, Dr. Mark Farmer. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. This is a huge day.

This is not only your first podcast appearance, which I shouldn't have even said because nobody would notice. You are one of our favorite clients here at Rapid Health Optimization, as well as you own your own orthopedic surgeon business in Florida. Yes, I do. So I'm in Fort Myers, Florida. I've been here for longer than you guys have been alive, I think. It's pretty scary sometimes, but no. I've been here for a long time. I specialize in basically all types of knee surgery, a lot of hip replacements, and a bunch of arthroscopic surgery of the shoulder. So I keep busy. We keep busy all the time. We got a lot of people who come through the doors and the goal is to make them better. And we started doing that, you know, a long time ago, things get

better, we get better with time. And, you know, this whole journey through rapid health has made me I think, a better physician as a whole, and helping patients in a whole nother level that I wasn't expecting to be able to do. That's awesome. I actually want to dig into the hip surgery side of what you do now and the technology that has come out. So my dad, I want to say four years ago now, had a hip replacement and within like an hour and a half, I want to say of them taking his femur off, putting on the new metal femur, however, stainless steel, I'm sure beautiful inside, reattaching his leg to his hip and on a walker, they had him like walking out of the doctor's office within two hours after waking him up. And it was absolutely mind boggling that that technology is there and that they want him to be kind of like loading that joint as quickly as they did.

So we do just most of our joint replacements, knees, shoulders, hips, we do as an outpatient now. So we do them in an outpatient surgical setting. Whereas when I first started years ago, you brought them in, you know, for a week beforehand, and they were in the hospital for two weeks. And what we found over the course of several years is that people do better the quicker you move them, right? And COVID for us was, you know, we had to stop working at COVID. But then when we started working again after COVID, when we were shut down for a while, we were only allowed to do elective surgery. So we then were doing these things as outpatients and sort of pushing the limits. But what we realized really quickly

is that actually they did better. They did better by going home, being in their own bed, getting their own food, getting their medication when they needed it, as opposed to if someone was busy next door and you don't have sick people at home. So there's no, the risk of, I think of infection and everything else goes down. The risk of blood clots goes down because you're moving and you know, you can put your weight on it right away. So we move people right from the beginning because it's just better for them. And as you know, we've learned from all the stuff that you do, listen, if we're not keeping you immobilized,

we're letting that muscle not deteriorate as quickly as we, as it would otherwise. Yeah. I'd imagine that's cheaper from many angles as well. And it frees up the kind of the labor resources within the hospital, like the time the doctors and nurses are spending with people. Like if you don't need to be there, cycle you out and you have more time to deal with the people that actually need you in the moment. Well, I think it definitely works that way. And I think, you know, I don't know

that the hospitals really like it because orthopedics and neurosurgery were their big breadwinners, basically. And so now we've moved it all to an outpatient setting. So I think it's hurting for the hospitals to some degree, but there's still some people have to be done at hospital. They have no support at home. They don't have any family that can come down and stay with them. They're too sick. So you have to pick and choose. But the reality is most people now can be done as an outpatient. And I think patients get better quicker. I just think they move quicker. They have fewer complications and they seem to be much happier from doing it that way. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a great example of how things kind of

have changed over the years. I'm curious in relation to our program, you've been in the medical space for many decades now. How has fitness and medical kind of come toward each other over time, where now there seems to be like quite a bit of overlap in some spaces? Certainly, if I need a hip replacement, I don't want to go to a personal trainer. Like, they're all going to have their own separate silos. But it seems like those worlds are beginning to blend together more and more over time. Well, I think they're definitely blending together. I mean, I think, you know, when I trained in medical school, you know, many, many years ago, you know, nutrition was just, I mean, I don't even remember being taught anything on nutrition. So all the stuff that I've learned and all the podcasts that

I've watched and all the information that I've gathered over the last six months of working with you guys, it's been eye-opening for me as well. And I'm learning all this stuff and going, this stuff's really cool and really important. And yet, you know, it's not really being taught or it wasn't being taught when I grew up in school. And so, yeah, I think it makes a difference. I mean, now with patients who have these joint replacement surgeries, I make sure that they're all making sure nutritionally they're optimized. So I put them all on an amino acid supplement before their surgery and the during that early recovery period because i want to make sure they've got every building block they can to improve their muscle strength to improve their health and to minimize again risks

so and then from a therapy standpoint i mean the, in the old days, we used to put people in casts, we used to when we did ACLs, for instance, we put people in casts when we first started. Now, we get a moving right away. I mean, you've got to get the movement, you want those muscles going. And I think it makes a big difference. And physical therapy protocols have changed drastically over the last, you know, 20 years. And I think a lot of that's based on science and data that you guys all produce. It's eye-opening because things clearly have changed. And I think the medical community is starting to implement a lot of those protocols because of that. And therapy's getting better because of that. When did you start to kind of like pay attention to, um, I would imagine it's not, uh, still very common that people are looking for, for better answers or how you can kind of combine what we do at rapid with the recovery side and the healing side, building muscles. Um, was there like a, an incident or like what kind of led you to start looking like outside the box to? It was a great question. So, you know, about a year and a half ago, I went to see my primary

care physician and, you know, he's a pretty good doctor. And I got a whole bunch of tests and I got like cholesterol levels and apolipoprotein beads, which a lot of people don't even order now. And then we also got all the size of the different particles and everything else. And, you know, listen, my stuff was not good. I thought I was pretty healthy, but clearly I wasn't that healthy. And I went, okay, well, now I'm going to go on a diet and exercise program. So I started to eat better. And I did what I've done for years, every few months, I do this high intensity interval training kind of workout, whether it be P90X or P90X3 or V shred, et cetera, et cetera. And so it was I got down and my bloods got better.

No question. But I was tired all the time. I was exhausted. And then I was listening to a podcast that Andrew Hughboom put out one time on ADHD. One of my sons and people have accused me at some point in time in my life of having ADHD. And believe that or not. So I was looking at that and this was really interesting. I wanted alcohol and I looked at that and was like, wow, I don't really drink a lot anyway, but there's nothing here that says that there's any benefit to me whatsoever. So, so I looked at that. And then the next one that came along was Andy Galpin and his six episodes that he had on creating a workout program that's

sustainable. Well, cause none of the ones that I'd ever done, it was great for three months. And then I'm like, okay, I'm bored of this. I don't like this. Sustainable from a longevity standpoint, how do you create that program? How do you implement it? What are the things that you look for? How do you test to it? And things like that. So it was like, well, this is really interesting. Who's this Andy Galpin guy? I know he's going to hear this and go, but I didn't know who it was. Really didn't. Okay. So I Googled it and- Very famous small circles. Anyway, up came rapid health optimization. And then I got to look at, Dan goes through your blood tests.

And it was like, well, wait a second. They're testing stuff that I've never even heard of, right? Shark family, I want to take a quick break. If you are enjoying today's conversation, They're testing stuff that I've been working at Rapid Health Optimization on programs for optimizing health. Now, what does that actually mean? It means in three parts, we're going to be doing a ton of deep dive into your labs. That means the inside out approach. So we're not going to be guessing your macros. We're not going to be guessing the total calories that you need. We're actually going to be doing all the work to uncover everything that you have going on inside you. Nutrition, supplementation, sleep, and then we're going to go through and analyze your lifestyle. Dr. Andy Galpin is going to build out a lifestyle protocol based on the

severity of your concerns. And then we're going to also build out all the programs that go into that based on the most severe things first. This truly is a world-class program, and we invite you to see step one of this process by going over to rapidhealthreport.com. You can see Dan reading my labs, the nutrition and supplementation that he has recommended that has radically shifted the way that I sleep, the energy that I have during the day, my total testosterone level, and just my ability to trust and have confidence in my health going forward. I really, really hope that you're able to go over to rapidhealthreport.com, watch the video of my labs and see what is possible.

And if it is something that you are interested in, please schedule a call with me on that page. Once again, it's rapidhealthreport.com and let's get back to the show. Well, wait a second. They're testing stuff that I've never even heard of, right? And so to me, it was like, that's when I called you and I went, I'd already started to listen to podcasts and I listened to Dan's. I think I listened to all 95 of his podcasts on the Garner Report,

like literally everyone. And I started to implement a lot of that stuff between protein and vitamin D. And I know I'm supposed to be on it. I've been told I should have been on it. I was like, yeah, what difference does it make? Well, you know, clearly it does. So I started to look into that. And I was like, that's what I called you.

I went, how do we develop a program that's going to benefit my patients, that's going to help them do the stuff that I'm doing? And you were like, well, you need to go, we're going to have something in, you know, the beginning of the year. And I was like, great. And he said, and then you turn around and say, well, you need to go through this to get some idea of what it is. And I'm like, well, didn't really want to go that route, but I did. And from the beginning, from the very first beginning, when we had that kickoff meeting, where I met all you guys on the, you know, on a Zoom call for a little bit.

And then, you know, within a day I had videos. I had the decode process. I had all this stuff coming to my house, you know, and everything else. And then I went through the decode process. And that's where, you know, Nicole had contacted me and went, okay, how are you working out? And I went through with Emily Hightower and she asked me how I was working out and my stress levels. And I have a job that's pretty stressful, I guess. I love it, but it's quickly, it's stressful. And then she asked me a

question, well, how do you work out? Well, I get on the Peloton. I go and I work out half an hour, 45 minutes as high intensity as I possibly can. And she looked at me and she went, stop for the next eight weeks. I don't want you doing anything but nasal breathing. And I looked, my first reaction was like, are you kidding me? Like, how is this possibly going to get me in shape? I'm going to this, I'm going to go downhill from here. I'm going skiing in a couple of months or in a month. Like this is not going to work. But I was like, okay, I'm going to trust the process, right? It's all about trying to trust the process that was totally out of my comfort zone.

Hey, and worst case scenario, you can just go back to panting like a dog in eight weeks, right? So anyway, I did. I went literally, my Peloton bike. I went 45 minutes and I was all nasal breathing zone two. And I kind of pushed it a little bit, but all nasal breathing. And, you know, I started to feel better. And Nicole had me on a mobility and strengthening program and stuff that, you know, I hadn't done. I mean, Romanian deadlifts. What the heck was that? Right. I'd never even heard of them, but my kids did it because they went to school at IMG. So, you know, they knew all about this stuff and they've always talked to me, but I didn't know

what it was. But anyway, so we started slow and she had me doing things that I, the first couple of times I did them, I'm going, I can't do this. Like, this is impossible. I can't do a hip 90, 90 and put my hips on the ground well and then when she put me on the hip 90 knives with extension i think the first day i i couldn't even do one now i can do 10 without any problem at all on each side so you could see the progress and then all the blood testing that you guys you did in the stool and the saliva and everything else you know i cheated a little bit i kind of got my results early. And, you know, when I I'd already looked up, you know, where you got your stuff from Genova Diagnostics and some of the other companies that you utilize

and what supplements that you guys recommended. And I started to research a lot of those because, you know, to me, a vitamin was a vitamin right and and protein was protein and clearly i realized you know i now have spreadsheets onto this stuff and look at this stuff and go well this stuff's lousy this stuff's lousy here we've got three things that really you know have bioavailability they're really good they know what they're doing so you know it's interesting when you talk to patients and you sit there and you go, well, you're taking vitamins. What? And they go, I get, you know, the generic over the counter vitamin. And I look at the stuff and I go, well, you've got stuff in there that's not bioavailable. Your B vitamins are not methylated. Like, yeah, there's issues there.

So I, we, we have conversations with patients. So I think that, you know, helps them. It certainly makes me sound that I know a little bit about what I'm talking about. So I think that helps them. It certainly makes me sound that I know a little bit about what I'm talking about, which I think because of you guys, I certainly know a lot more now. But so we started to do that. I got my some of my blood tests back and I looked at like my omegas, for instance, were critically low, like 10 bright red flashing everywhere. I went, you're going to put me on an omega. So I might as well just start taking it now. Vitamin D, I already been told to take and I started taking that. So I took a couple of things. And then you guys had this whole protocol that you put me on. And for, you know, literally within four weeks, I felt that I felt different. And I actually put my wife on Omegas and some vitamin D

because she'd been told to do it too in a multivitamin. And she was like in about four or five weeks, she was like, I didn't want to tell you. I really didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to do this in the first place. But I feel better. I feel different. And there's no question. And then you guys put me on a gut protocol. I'm like, why do I need a gut protocol? Well, now I know. I looked at my labs and I'm going, okay, now I understand why it is. And I can tell you, drastically changed the way I feel. It drastically changed, you know, literally everything.

And I was like, you and I have had the conversation. I think that's something everybody should do. And it won't every year or two years anyway. I mean, clearly it made a massive difference. And, you know, like between my strength and my nutrition, they tracked, you guys tracked my nutrition on the chronometer app. And I thought I was eating pretty well by that stage. And then I all of a sudden realized, yeah, no, I was malnourished.

I didn't eat the right things. You know, my protein levels were non-existent, but I didn't know what the amount of protein you should eat. Now, there's not, and I thought it was really tough to start with. Eating that amount of protein was going to be really hard to start because you're just not used to it. Now I find it, it's really actually way easier to eat that much protein. You know, it's a gram of protein per pound of body weight, lean body mass, right?

So I have no problem eating it and just create snacks with protein every single day, no matter what we're doing. And it's made a huge difference, just like every day, the energy I feel every day, the mood I have every day. It's just, it's unbelievable. I mean, it's like life is good, right? It should, I didn't expect it. You guys mean, it's like life is good, right? It should, I didn't expect it. You guys all said you're going to feel better, right? I didn't expect it to be this good, right? Like literally every day I'm jumping out of bed at 5.30 in the 5.15 in the morning to go work out. I'd never worked out before five o'clock in the afternoon in my

entire life. Not one time. I tried it and i'm like i'm so exhausted i gotta go back to bed this is now if i don't get up at five o'clock i'm miserable i'm like god wasted the day guys yeah um if we were to i kind of want to roll roll the clock back in in your in your story here how much exposure to reading blood work did you have prior to coming in here? If it was in the normal range, it was good. That was it. That's my exposure. Yeah. Right. So boy, have I changed the way I look at stuff now? I mean, like, you know, I, people come in and go, you know, I asked them, what's your fasting blood sugar? They go, man, 95. I go, we have a problem. We got a big problem. In sugar? They go, 95. I go, we have a problem.

We got a big problem. You're causing inflammation in your body. I go, you got a 60% chance you're going to be type 2 diabetic in the next 10 years. Thanks, Dan Garner. I was right there with you. Right? And it's like you sit there and you look at that level. And you look at things like dehydration.

And you look at the gut health and, you know, the combination monocytes eosinophils and basophils i'm like going it's amazing how many people i see who all of a sudden have this gut process going on that clearly is not normal yeah and you know had you ever thought about gut health before outside of just the the buzzword that takes over the internet? Not one time did I ever mention that to a patient. Now I've got patients who come in, you know, they've got psoriasis or rheumatoid arthritis. And I'm going, you know, we probably should at least at the very least, you should be on Omega and you probably should be on a gut protocol but let's get some bloods and let's take a look because you know what a lot of your symptoms can be made reduced

and maybe the frequency of having some of these attacks be lessened if you do something about that and it's like people look at me like but you're an orthopedic surgeon like why hasn't you know anybody else told me about that go I go, I only know about it because I wasn't the healthiest person around. And now I've learned all this stuff that happens. And, you know, if this is an indication of how you can feel, then boy, this is something that people should be doing more often. Yeah. How, what kind of piggybacking off of the gut health thing, what, what are you advising for your clients on kind of like a gut health side of things? I would imagine there's some sort of nutrition and supplementation protocol that you're walking them through.

It starts with basic nutrition. So, you know, I have a couple of questions I usually ask patients. It's like, well, what did you have for breakfast? What do you have for dinner last night? Could get some idea of what their routine is, right? Yeah. It blows my mind that protein intake routinely is less than 50 grams, right? And fiber intake less than five, almost not universally, but massive number percentage,

less than five grams of fiber a day. And I'm going, you know, and hydration is just water. There's no electrolytes at all. And listen, I didn't know that either until, you know, four months ago or five months ago. I'm like, okay, now I have electrolytes with it. So, you know, you sit there and you look at your commission and say, okay, now I have electrolytes with it. So, you know, you sit there and you look at your compassion. So listen, if you do nothing else, but increase your fiber intake and increase your protein intake, you keep everything else. You're not going to eat as much of the stuff that you shouldn't be eating. But by doing that, you're going to, you're going to get better. Your weight's going to come down. You're going to feel better. And then if they want to, I'll go into a whole lot more detail, but just those two things alone make this

massive difference. Yeah. And I would imagine too, even being in orthopedics, when you see people coming in with the hips, with the knees specifically, like there's big weight problems and you don't actually like, I, this may be, this is definitely going to come across judgmental. But when I see people that are unhealthy, I can look at them and I go, I already know the top 10 things that we need to go fix in your life without seeing the deep dive into your blood, into your gut health and how much you can go and solve with. Let's just get you eating a certain way and getting on some basic supplementation that will just significantly improve that the amount of weight that people

are carrying around and the bad habits that they don't even really know that they have. Well, they don't. I mean, listen, nobody is. I mean, I have one patient told me I had no idea what I was talking about when I told them they need a gram of protein per pound of body weight. And I'm like going, well, I'm sorry, but I actually do know this stuff. I mean, you can listen to all the people that I've listened to. It makes this big difference. So I do. And I asked them and, you know, and some people go, well, I don't do this and I will. Do you drink soda? Well, yeah, it's my weakness. I have 12 sodas a day and I like, Oh, wait a second. Let's stop right there. If you do nothing else, but but cut it in half you're going to be better off so it's killing people yeah it's and then

especially so i have a lot of you know patients who are you know 70 and above and you know nobody's ever talked to them and i didn't know about it about resistance training and increasing your protein intake right because you want that especially first thing in the morning, you want that protein, you want to stimulate muscle synthesis, you want to do all of those kinds of things to get people going. So I've really tried to let people know, especially as they get older, that, you know, listen, if you have more protein, and you do even a couple of days a week, let's do some resistance training, you're going to be much better off in that sort of that 75 to 85, 88 age range where, you know, you're not falling, right? Because that's the worst thing that can happen to you. So, you know, I really put an emphasis on trying to get people to eat more protein and trying to get them to exercise because those are clearly the two most important things.

It's nutrition and exercise. Again, we can go into alcohol. We can go into all those other things, but it's just the basic stuff that I think this huge population needs to understand. It's hard. I know it's hard. It's not the easiest thing to totally change the way you're doing things, especially the older you get. But listen, it's clearly, you know,

if I'm any example of any of it, it's clearly worth it. Yeah. One of the things that you've brought up, and I don't know how confidently you were speaking on kind of thyroid issues, autoimmunity prior to being in the program. But we've talked multiple times and thyroid specifically has come up. And from your voice, it sounds like you've become very confident and kind of understanding that and how to analyze blood work and kind of the path forward. Is that an area that you've just kind of become confident in and where else do you feel like that? So I'm getting there. I mean, I think there's certain things that I think are important.

So, you know, evaluating blood tests, you know, from the optimal level, as opposed to that normal range, right. But that normal range is just massive. And then, so I took a couple of courses on thyroid health and hormone health and gut health. Right. I took some online things that I could learn. And it was like, wow, this is different. So again, I'm not I don't proclaim to be like the best knowledge of it, but I have a much better understanding of the thyroid health than I ever used to. So, you know, just the blood tests that you get to really evaluate the thyroid and what that optimal level is, you know, you can look at them and go, well, you're hypothyroid, but you're all in that normal range, right? So that optimal range clearly looks at it. And, you know, 90, I think they say 90 to 95% of hypothyroidism is autoimmune. So if it's autoimmune, you know, the things that I've read so far, certainly, let's try to evaluate the gut and see if you have a leaky gut, which

may be the main contributor to a lot of autoimmunity. It's let's try to fix that. And let's see if maybe some of your hormones and the other things don't start to normalize and come back down. Right? I mean, I think that's where this is going. Ultimately, I'd like to be able to feel comfortable enough to say, listen, well, let's try these things again at the root cause, I guess, for lack of a better term. Yeah. And maybe you don't have to be on some of these things. A great example, I get people coming in my office all the time and I get several people now who are on three different blood pressure medications. Right. And so after listening to Dan and his

evaluation of homocysteine and what it does to the blood vessels and other people, too, at this point, I'm like going, if you're on three blood pressure medicines, my guess is that your homocysteine levels get, let's get a blood test. And so far I've done six people. And so far, every single one of the homocysteine levels has been above 15, right? And then the lowest, I think it was 17, had a couple up in that 19, 20 range, which is where I was when I first started. So I was taking two blood pressure medicines when I started this program. I don't take any anymore. I don't take my cholesterol medicine anymore because my labs are all back down to normal,

and my blood pressure runs 117 over 60. I'm like going, it's just like I didn't think. It took a while for that homocysteine level I'm going to assume has come down. I just got my blood test two weeks ago. I haven't had them back yet. But I can't even imagine that it's not lower. So I've had a couple of people that I've actually put on the, you know, the treatment with the methylated vitamins and the trimethylglycine for homocysteine to get it down. And I've got the first two patients I've seen, one of them's off one medicine, one of them's off two medicines

now. So clearly I think there's something to it. So I think there's clearly some benefit from a health standpoint to be looking at some of this nutrition stuff to get people healthier. Yeah, yeah, I mean, phenomenal to hear how well your labs improved and to be able to get off prescription medications is just a huge win. Performance wise, when you came in here, did you have any major performance goals that you were trying to accomplish? I didn't really have any goals at that point. I mean, you know, I ski three, four times a year. And I can tell you, you know, the first day skiing, you get off at the end of the slopes at the end of the day.

And I like to ski from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. It's open until close. And by the end of the first day, you're pretty tired. Day two is always great. Day three usually is an absolute nightmare. Like my legs hurt. I'm tired. I can't function. This year, six days in a row, consecutively skiing 25,000 vertical. Like, OK, no, this is no problem. Love it. Didn't get tired all day long every day. It was awesome. Right. Like when can we come back and do more? It's like energy level, the stress, you know, the lack of fatigue was impressive. I mean, again, you're just breathing ability and altitude. I mean, I got up to altitude. It was great. It's like, wow, I haven't slept like this ever at that altitude either. So and we weren't high and we

were at seventy five hundred feet, which is,, which is not that high as mountains go. But it was incredible. I mean, it was like I've never skied as long as I can remember where I could literally go six days in a row without stopping except for a little bit for lunch for half an hour and have the energy to do it and then get up and still stretch. I mean, my youngest son wanted to go to the gym one day at five o'clock after we were done. And I'm like, okay, let's go. So we actually went and did a, you know, Nicole put me on a workout regimen. So I was actually doing some of the stuff

even after a day skiing. And I'm like going, this is insane. How did I even come close to doing that? But it was great. It was like, you know, you just felt great. I could do the stretches. I could do the stuff every day as opposed to just sit down and like oh i just want to go to bed yeah a big part of that aspiration was to keep up with your kids on the slopes right

oh absolutely like keeping up with them is is you know they're both real athletes and you know they're super they like to hit the gym they like to to do things. So it's, it's, it's great bonding. It's like, I get to discuss, you know, real stuff, nutrition stuff and, you know, physiology and exercise stuff and how are we going to get you stronger to make you better in college, right? So, I mean, and it's, it's been great. It's brought us, you know, even closer together than we were. So from my standpoint, I love it. And now you're, uh, you're still able to talk shit on the slopes then? Was that, was that going away?

You're kind of less confident and now you're kind of coming back into the mix. Like I can beat you down. I won't do it. Like I'm not, you know, at my age, I'm not about to go do three sixties,

which my kids like to start to try and do. Right. Cause I'm like, I can't afford to break my bones. I just can't afford to do my bones i just can't afford to do that so i'll ski i'll ski hard all day we'll do bumps we'll do trees we'll do powder we'll do whatever we can but i'm not doing those 360s or those really big jumps anymore i'll do i'll do you know i'll come with two feet off the ground that's as far as i need yeah yeah uh do you have

partners at your practice i do so they're right now there are five of us have been in practice together for several years um are they coming around to this as they see you so the first part so the first part they they put up with me i think is probably a better way to put it at this point somebody Somebody get rid of this energy in this guy. He's really annoying. Great business partner for the past 20 years, but now he's so annoying. One of my best friends is one of my partners as well. You know, we were away skiing and again, you know, he was like, we, so we started talking about some of this stuff and you know, it was like,

I think, you know, for someone who's as, as absolutely brilliant as he is, I think he actually looked at me in a different way after that, like going, you actually know some of this stuff. It's actually quite impressive. So it was really interesting. And I've got a couple of them who I started off with just some basic here. Listen, I know I haven't even got your blood test, but these are maybe some things that you can take.

It was really good. So I started to help a couple of my to just to get healthier in terms of things that they do. And, you know, now that again, you and I've been talking about, you know, the vitality program and things like that. So now that I've basically ran my wife as a guinea pig through it and some of the other stuff, I signed another of my friends up for the bloods. He wanted to go through the bloods the other day. So as I start to get into that more, I think they will they will actually jump on board, certainly with some of the stuff. But, you know, listen, you've got to want to do it right. You have to want to be to change things. And I think, you know, I clearly was willing to do that. And to me, the benefit was far outweigh the rest, but I'm also older than all of them. So at this point, I think that there's some that clearly are starting to do some of the things.

And, you know, when they start to feel like this, I think ultimately they'll, they'll go from there. So, I mean, my partner asked me, he said, what blood test should I get except for the basics? So I, I basically handed him the list and went, go get some of these, right? He said, don't let me go over the top. I'm like, no, I'm not going to make you go over the top. So it was like, let's just make that happen. I'd love to know kind of as you project out your career, where do you feel like, you know, when I listen to you talk, the excitement behind all of this is very obvious.

Do you feel like this really is kind of like the natural progression? Is it, and it's not like you're going to just like leave orthopedics or things like that, but kind of this like more integrated approach to it. Do you feel like that, that really is kind of like where your mindset's at? Oh, I think it's definitely that this integrated approach is definitely something that is going in that direction. And I know, listen, surgeons can't operate forever, right? I know there comes a time where I'm going to go, you know, my surgical skills are declining, you know, my neck and stuff like that with a big helmet on and everything else doesn't

feel great if I do like 10 cases in a row. So, you know, there will come a time where I know that, you know what, I'm not, I shouldn't be operating anymore. And the day that that happens, this stuff to me is like a whole new, a whole new experience, a whole new career that I can do from anywhere in the world and be successful at it and provide care to people who who want it and to get them to you know feel even remotely half as good and to really what it comes down to is you know i mean peter attia will turn around and go right it's about health span and lifespan right it doesn't matter how long you live if you're not healthy enough to really enjoy it, what's the point? So to me, it's all about let's try to get people healthy and let's try to let them live the way that they want to live in a way that they can do the things they want to do.

I have that conversation with every day. Like, what do you want to be able to do in five years time? Yeah. Right. And so because especially when you get to that age, again, you hit that 75 to 85 range. Obviously, it's a range and everybody's different depending on where they started from, but the reality is if they haven't been doing stuff or are not willing to do stuff, there's going to be that, as I talk about with patients, there's that cliff that you

fall on and you just can't do the stuff you want to do anymore. And, you know, it's sad. I mean, I see it. I see it with my parents. I see it with a lot of patients. And it's like we don't have to get to that stage. There are ways that we can get you better. And it doesn't require this. You know, I got to go out and I got to pump 300 pounds every day. It's movement. It's a little bit of resistance. It's all of those other things that matter. Like how do we make your cognition better?

How do we make your thought process just better and more lucid? You don't have brain fog and things like that. I mean, you know, there's amazing. Like, I mean, the omegas that we take make a difference on that stuff. I mean, so in most people in this day and age don't get those in their in their diet, our nutrition and our food, or you can call it food half the time is socially inadequate as, you know, when you started tracking my stuff, and my lesson, I thought I well, I was eating fruit, I was eating meat, I was eating a bunch of of stuff I was deficient every day and just about every vitamin you can get and it was like that was eye-opening to me

yeah um have you always had kind of like the the mindset of the continuing education and and um I feel like you just in the you know year we've known you going from being slightly interested, wondering what this program is all about, and now trying to integrate it into the practice. You're taking courses on, you know, reading blood panels in a way that you had never even heard of until call it a year ago. Has that mindset always been with you or has this like really triggered something new that just gets you fired up? This has triggered something new. I mean, listen, I mean, I've always loved what I do and I love orthopedics and I do, I think, a really good job doing it. Yeah. But this was something that's like, well, this is something I never learned, right? So this is a whole new thing. And it was like, this makes sense. It makes sense that like just at the ground level and then at the intellectual level and the physical level, it absolutely makes sense to be able to do stuff.

And, you know, listen,'t want to get to that 83, 85 year and not be able to ski or not be able to play golf or not be able to hang out with grandkids if I am lucky enough to have them at one point in time. Right. I want to be able to do all of that stuff. And if that allows me to live to later on that and that there becomes these like almost times in life where like the the way that the world works, like it puts you into an unhealthier place. Like many of us play sports until we're 18 years old to find out that we're not big enough, strong enough or fast enough to go play at the next level. And then it's like, well, what do I do next? And like the options are like slow pitch softball. And then the next thing you know, you're like 40 years old and you have kids. And all of a sudden now it's even harder to get up in the morning and go train and do all these things. But when we have access to blood work and we have access to experts and we have the ability

to keep learning, I really wonder how long we're able, like, I can't just imagine a day, like, I don't know what happens when I turn 70 years old, clearly, like that's a bit of a ways out. But like, I really just can't imagine a time in life where I'm not working out or not eating well or not getting enough protein or not, you know, taking some basic supplementation to keep my physiology healthy. Like all of these things, once you learn them, one, you can't unlearn them. And then it comes down to the personal choices of, you know, am I going to do the thing that's the best for my body? But I think a lot of that's

education right yeah it really is i mean listen i i've learned so much in the last year of doing this like it's like a whole nother degree right yeah and it's it's it's interesting but it's like and the older you get you'll see one day you're not close to it yet like you'll get to the stage where you're ready for like the andropause to kick in. I'm not ready. But when people retire as well, right? So you get to a retirement age and you say, okay, listen, I'm not going to do my job. But you can't do nothing, right?

I mean, that's the fast way to be six feet under the ground, right? You have to be busy. You have to do something. You have to stimulate your brain. You have to stimulate your body. And, you know, this allows you have to do something you have to stimulate your brain you have to stimulate your body and you know this allows you to do all of that stuff i mean i've always been fairly active i've you know i was you know an athlete in school and you know i always did stuff i always kept in relatively good shape i like to see i like to run i like to do triathlons for a while and you know so i've always been active but now you get it got more

and more difficult but now with the the flexibility and the the strengthening and the mobility exercise and the balance stuff that you guys have put me through it's like wait a second i can do this stuff i can do this stuff forever right yeah and And that's, that's, that's eye opening because you just, you sit there and you think, if I can feel remotely like this in 20 years from now, I'm far exceeding the curve. Right. And that's what it's about. You can stay healthy. And that really gets to like the heart of kind of where, where I was going is it's like, if, if once you learn the stuff and you're committed to making the heart of kind of where, where I was going is it's like, if, if once you learn the stuff and you're committed to making the choice every day to work out and eat well and

sleep well and, and do the, do the basics, you know, can you be 95 years old and still skiing in the winter? Can you be, can you be a hundred, can you be 110 and still be in great shape, living like a very healthy, active life? Well, I think you can and I think you have to be. Like, if you want to be at that age, as I said, there's no point. There's no point. I mean, there's always point to being alive. But, you know, if you have a choice between, OK, well, I'm in a wheelchair and I'm just there to say hello. Or I can be up and I can go take my

grandkids and go skiing, or I could, you know, I could go for a hike or I can do things, you know, get out in nature, go to still travel around the world. That clearly to me is way better alternative. And so if there's a way to get to that stage, then I'm all in. Right. I don't think and I think most people would want to do that. The question is, and the difficulty is, it's not without a lot of work to get there. Right. I mean, the nutrition part. Yes, it's it requires some discipline and it requires some dedication and it requires some planning, right? The exercise, clearly, you have to do exercise in a way that you're not getting hurt. So you have to start at the basics and start at the core and start at the, you know, the foundational stuff that's absolutely essential. And that's what you guys clearly have implemented in this program. And so that stuff's easy. I can do that forever. And I feel bad if I don't do it. I't feel good if i i say i don't do it the only times i haven't done it is when i'm vacationing i

don't think i've missed a workout in six months thank you cole would come after you she would she'd be picking up the phone going what the hell are you doing which is great i love it yeah she's uh she'll get on you i love that um so i'm curious on the workout front with with nicole like how did your strength training workouts change so well i didn't have strength training before right i mean i get on a peloton and i do high you know hit training on the peloton and i mean i don't remember the last time I lifted weights. I mean, maybe I did it one time when I went and worked out my kids one time. Right. You know, maybe once every year or a couple of years. Now, I, you know, again, I don't have a massive gym at home, but I have, you know, two 50 pound dumbbells or I can go from five to 50 you know it's one of those rotational things and i have a um i have a peloton bike and i have a pull-up bar and i have a bench that i can do stuff on and i can tell you yeah so my strength's gotten better i mean my grip strength went from i think 108 to 115 my um we just retested it all for vitality and everything was higher my i know when i did a

cooper's test i went from 32 i think was the original one which is so it's it's a test of your vo2 max for anybody who's listening doesn't understand so it gives you some form of your cardiac fitness now i'm at 36 which is up almost to the next level. It's not the elite level, but again, I, I think I can get there. Right. And that's what we're working towards. So my, yeah, my weight training was non-existent. Now it's like, it's just part of the weekly routine and I love it. If I don't do it, I miss it. I don't feel good. Yeah. Yeah. Have you had any, any changes in body composition to go along with that? Oh my God. I had't feel good. Yeah. Yeah. Have you had any, any changes in body composition to go along with that? Oh my God. I had a six month, like pregnant woman belly before when I started,

not quite, but it wasn't like I sat there and now if I stick my stomach out, it's like, yeah, where's the stomach? It's non-existent. So yeah, I mean, I've lost, clearly lost body fat. Um, muscular development clearly gotten better um i can actually see muscle lines in my shoulders to my arms now which i couldn't before and i can even almost see i can definitely see my my lateral abs which i couldn't see before and now i'm just working on that little real little butt at the very bottom of the belly i've got i can see the upper lines now so i got a little bit more to go but i'm loving every bit of getting there. I'll get there. I love it.

Fantastic, man. If people are in Florida, where can they come hang out with you? So I'm in Fort Myers. We have a website which does not have this information on it yet because literally we're just starting to roll this out, but it's ocfla.net.

And I'm around. Fantastic, man. Doug Larson. Where you have any any social media or anything like that that people can reach out to you if they'd like to uh i have yes but don't listen i'm i'm old right i don't even know the names of it anymore so you're not doing the the dances where you like point to the words yeah you're not you're not on tiktok i tried yeah my kids i let them do the Instagram stuff and the Snapchats. I can't do that. So, yeah,

we'll get there one time. I think as part of this whole program that you guys are helping me get to, that we'll have something up and running for that, you know, in the next few months. But we'll get there.

I like it. Doug, take it away. Gotcha. You bet. I'm on Instagram, Douglas C. Larson. Mark, dude, I'm very happy you've had

such an amazing experience here at Rapid. So thank you for coming on the show and sharing your experience. And I'm looking forward to seeing what the next six months hold for you. All right. Love it. Can't wait. Thanks so much for having me, guys. It's been a pleasure. Awesome, man. I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner. And we are Barbell Shrugged at Barbell underscore Shrugged. And make sure you go over to RapidHealthReport.com.

That is where you can find where Mark Farmer had such an awesome experience as well as Dan Garner, Dr. Andy Galpin doing a free lab lifestyle and performance analysis. And you can access that free report at rapid health report.com friends. We will see you guys next week.