Barbell Shrugged - The Path to Optimizing Health and Performance w/ Dr. Baseer Kahn, Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Travis Mash #781

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

Born and raised in Canada, Dr. Baseer Khan received his MD from the University of Toronto where he was honored to have received the Sigmung Vaile Award for Top Surgeon in his graduating class and received several research awards during his training. He went on to complete subspecialty training in Glaucoma and Advanced Anterior Segment Surgery. As an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and international Ophthalmology consultant for multiple companies, Dr. Khan is actively involved in teaching and research and development on local, national and international platforms. Dr. Khan has published extensively in journals and books and is often sought as an expert in advanced and challenging cases. He has also developed and designed surgical instrumentation for new surgical techniques. Dr. Khan has dedicated a segment of his practice as well to humanitarian work, much of which has been in Vietnam. Dr. Khan is currently the Executive Lead Physician at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ontario and Director of the Clarity Eye Institute in Ontario.   Work with RAPID Health Optimization Links: Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram Coach Travis Mash on Instagram

Shrug family, this week on Barbell Shrug, Dr. Basir Khan, our good friend Dr. Basir is coming in. He has been with us inside Rapid Health Optimization for over 18 months, so over a year and a half now, and a phenomenal human being to understand kind of where he was before joining the program, where he is now, why he found us, or where he found us, why he joined, some of the things that he was kind of curious about. Once he entered the program, doing this with kind of his best friend and business partner all at the same time, really the support he's received inside the program, a lot of the experts that we talk about and with on the show here, what it's actually like to be working with

them and having an entire team kind of built around him for him to go absolutely smash his goals over the last year and a half, which is very, very cool. So as always, if you love this podcast, if you want to have the same results, come and hang out with us at Rapid Health Optimization. You can do that over at rapidhealthreport.com. That's where you can check out all the lab lifestyle performance analysis, lab testing, stuff that we're doing inside and how you can start to feel and perform the absolute best you ever have in your entire life. And you can access all of that over at rapidhealthreport.com. Friends, let's get into the show. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Anders Varner, Doug Larson, Dr. Basir Khan. Welcome to the show, man. Your first podcast, 2025. There's people lined up

outside your house right now, waiting for your autograph after you tell your story here. You've been with us for coming up on two years now at Rapid Health Optimization, and you and Dr. Perry have been absolutely crushing it. And kind of to kick things off, what I'd love to dig into is just a little bit of where you were two years ago when you were looking for some answers and just what the overall mindset on getting healthy and kind of reaching out was. Look, man, look, I've been committed to my health since probably, look, when I was a kid, I was an active, you know, athlete. I swam competitively in high school. I even rode, you know, varsity a year in university.

And then when I went and did my residency, that just kind of, you know, the one thing I never had when I was a kid was good eating habits. And I packed on a lot of weight uh when I finished my training and you know I think probably it was about 2009-10 I went for some blood work and it was just kind of like you know things were just really not looking good and I'm like you know what I gotta if I don't take care of myself nothing else no one else is going to do it so I really over the last you know starting, I dropped a whole bunch of weight, just, just trying to, you know, eat better intermittent fasting and, and just started trying different programs like P90X and sanity and tried to put together my own stuff, did triathlons for a year, but it was always a hard mix of, okay, what do I do here? What do I do there? You know, I'm, I'm, you know, based on my educational educational background obviously evidence and science is

really important to me you know the challenge as a doctor is is that we we learn how to fix problems we don't take people and make them better right we don't take we're happy with average right we're happy with just okay this person just kind of meets average what's that not sick not sick yeah not injured Not injured, not injured, not broken. You know, if you get a problem, we cut it out or we give you some medication and we get you back to, okay. We don't know how to make people, or we don't certainly don't learn about how to take people. Okay. And keep them healthy or make them better. It's just, just unfortunately, not what modern science does. And the problem on the internet is everyone's an

expert right and and sifting through trying to figure it out look it's not a question of intelligence everyone's smart enough to go out and figure it out question is the time right yeah so you know when when paul my partner came to me and said because we we've you know we've grown together not just as friends not just as business partners uh but you know, we've grown together, not just as friends, not just as business partners. But, you know, we've gone through a very sort of parallel path of sort of wanting to be healthy, you know, not just for ourselves, but for our family. You know, I want to be able to run with my grandkids, you know, all that sort of stuff. And look, you know, God's given me a certain amount of wealth that I can invest in, in myself and in my health.

And like what, you know, none of us are going to live forever, but let's have that quality of life that we can't. So when Paul came to me and said, Hey, listen, you know, I found these guys. Cause when Paul researches stuff, he really researches stuff. He's like, listen, these guys, I talked to him like two weeks ago. Yeah, man. Like he's a great human. He, he, he, he goes deep. And like, when he called me and he's like, I'm going to like two weeks ago. Yeah, man. Like he's a great human. He, he, he, he goes deep.

And like when he called me and he's like, I'm going to work with these guys. I'm like, I'm like, hook me up, man. Like, like let's like the science behind this, the idea that somebody was going to take all of that ecosystem of different things and not, and take me from being hopefully okay to being healthy or healthier and moving in a opposite direction that we naturally go to with age which is really important to me and so you know I I've been working with another trainer for about a year that year uh prior to that I'd probably gotten as lean as I have in my adult life and I was feeling really good. Unfortunately, November of 22, I herniated a disc just lifting

snow tires, I think into my SUV. And that kind of set me back and I was just kind of looking for that motivation again. And then when this popped up, I'm like, you know what, let's do it. And that was really the impetus of it. It was just the idea of, I really want this to be a science driven research to back endeavor. And you guys obviously put that package together in a way that I hadn't seen with anybody else. I'm like, I didn't really, I didn't do any research beyond that. It was that, that was good enough for me. I'm like, let's do it. Yeah. One of the things I may have cheated, I may have got some cheat sheet from Dr. Perry. And one of the things that I always think is really cool is, but I mean, we obviously we work with very high achieving people and you're an eye surgeon.

On the on the cognitive side of things, Dr. Perry said that there's been massive improvements and just the confidence that you have. Had you noticed like a decline, lack of kind of trust in yourself, things slowing down in that capacity? Because I would imagine as a surgeon, that is something that has to be top of mind on a daily basis, just making sure that you're able to keep your own tools sharp. Yeah, I mean, definitely. Look i i mean i i'd like to think that i function at a pretty high level both you know physically and and cognitively for what i do and um you know not just with ophthalmology some of the other interests that i have and you know i i'm pretty sure i got covid uh at the beginning of 23 and you know i i'm i'm i it's hard to diagnose these days because

the test or whatever but symptom and symptomatically i'm pretty sure that's what I had because I rarely get sick in this. I haven't really forward me. And, you know, I was just feeling a bit of brain fog and some other stuff. And, you know, I can't subtle things because I use my hands. Right. Just even a little bit of what dexterity, I think, in the summer 23, started to feel like something ain't right. And, you know, so again, we, you know, that was something that I'd iterated to the team. And, you know, we sort of, you know, the package or the plan was put together to, I think, address a bit both of sort of cognitive support, as well as, you know, an anti-inflammatory type of thing.

And I think the other thing too, Anders, and just, you know, I know I'm jumping a bit over here, like along here, but, you know, one of the things or the two things that I really learned with you guys, and I think helped all of this, right. Cause up until this point to me, fitness was diet and exercise and nothing else right and not to say that those things aren't important i'm not going to discount the importance of those things but the two things um that you guys really focused on um actually three things i would say

outside of that that i had never really tuned into was sleep the importance of sleep uh supplementation and cortisol stress management and i'm sure and those are things you guys even said to me in the first year like sir don't don't let's not we're not going to prioritize uh fitness and and or physical exercise and eating like we should not do those things but those are secondary outcomes right now. We got to fix a few other things. And I think those things too, obviously had a huge impact and sort of, you know,

coming back to where I wanted to be on sort of that cognitive and logical level. Did that catch your eye? Oh, go ahead. Yeah, similar question. Like, were you resistant to that at all? Were you coming in here expecting more diet and fitness things, and then you got something that wasn't exactly that, and you were resistant? Or were you like, oh, good, something brand new.

I was looking for something new, and I got it. I don't think it was either one of those, Doug. I'd say what I'd tell you is, look, if I'm going to invest in something, I'm balls in. Like, I'm all in. I said to Chris, I said, you're my drill sergeant, and if you say jump, I'm going in like I'm all in it's like I said to I said to Chris I said you're my drill sergeant and if you say jump I'm going to say how high like if this is what you tell me I need to do look I've I put my faith in you you guys are the experts and I'm going to do what you tell me to do I may ask questions look I'll take the analogy of a patient sitting in front of me you know like

at the end I expect patients to ask me certain number of questions hey okay i doc you give me three options can you explain each of these to me at the end of the at the end of that that visit the majority of people say okay you've explained all this i understand what do you suggest that i do tell me what you do you're the expert i'm going to do what you tell me to do and and that's my approach so that's how i kind of expect people interact with me when i'm in in the of being the expert. I'm not putting you guys in the position to be an expert. I'm going to afford you the same courtesy and have the same expectation from you guys that you're going to turn around and tell me, hey, man, this is what

we need you to do and trust us. This is what's going to make you better. Yeah. On top of kind of like a yearly bloodwork, you said that those things weren't looking, looking the best. Were you doing any other testing or were there any kind of other mounting, I don't want to say fears, but just kind of like insecurities about where, where your health was headed? No, man, I think, look, just based on, I mean, other than annual testing, like blood work and stuff, wasn't really doing anything. I think my family doctor had me doing the stress test once a year, just because of my genetic or cultural background. Well, I guess

you could say my demographic background or just more risk for diabetes and heart disease. So my, my, my, my GP is a little bit more aggressive with me than others might be but that's about it I mean I certainly wasn't doing any of the performance metrics or testing that you guys have had me do but when you're working with your GP had you expressed to him that you wanted to improve cognitive function

if you had brain fog and maybe memory was an issue or just like processing speed or whatever symptoms you were having had you discussed that with them and had they tried to help you in that department? And maybe maybe memory was an issue or just like processing speed or whatever, whatever symptoms you were having. Had you discussed that with them and had they tried to help you in that department? No, because the problem is, is that it's like, honestly, again, like we're just talking about such small differences. It's not like I was walking into walls or not able to do my job. It's just it's it's because it's the sort of thing where if I had said some of this to somebody, they would have looked at me like, like, do you like.

Yeah, really? Really? Like, do you think there's something like I got bigger? I had said some of this to somebody, they would have looked at me like, dude, really? Like, do you think there's something? Like, I got people with much bigger problems, right? So it's not something, you know, it would be like someone coming into me and say, hey, I saw an extra floater today. And I'd be like rolling my eyes, right? So it's, yeah, no, never had a conversation with my GP on that one. Yeah, I think that's the thing that I love about our clients, though, is they're always, it's almost like looking for an edge in every aspect of performance, whether it's at work or they're trying to do it on a field or on a hockey rink. not just do I pass the kind of like the not sick test, but how do you actually optimize things and, and try to play the game being your best? Has that process can maybe that like mindset as like a philosophy always been

around or is this like, how has that kind of developed over the last two years? No, man. I mean, yeah, no, I think this has always been something that that's that's driven me. Right. Like I I've always I've never been happy with the status quo. I mean, look, there's a fine balance of trying to be a high achiever. Right. Because, you know, there's a certain amount of motivation where you need to have to get you to do something, but you can't always, if you, if you're not satisfied with where you get, then you're always unhappy, right? Generally speaking,

I think I find that balance of, Hey, I'm happy with what I've achieved, but let's see if I can get to the next level. So I think that's always been, yeah, I think that's something that's been innate in me for, for, for as long as I can remember, I've always looked to, Hey, you know what? I've done a decent job, but how can, what can I do to get a bit better? I've enjoyed going back to school. I've done a couple of degrees after I finished, you know, my training. I I'm always trying to do new things and find a different edge. I think that's just who I am. Right. And so I think that that narrative or that drive, I think works really well with what rapid had to offer. Yeah. I know you said that the diet and exercise part of this, at least initially, it wasn't the main focus. But I also know that you lost body fat. You got leaner.

Your cardiac output. First thing I said, he looks jacked. I know. Yeah. Right off camera, the first thing we both said, we're like, oh, all I see are fucking delts and pecs. And this guy's looking lean, looking good. But yeah, I know you got leaner and your cardiac output and just aerobic capacity increased. Were those active goals of yours? Was that just a byproduct of just good habits kind of systemically no man look i mean

one of the things we talked about is what i know you guys deal with a lot of professional athletes um they have specific sort of outcomes like they want to run faster or lift heavier or whatnot i mean my my narrative with you guys are my goals and objectives. I just want to be healthier. Right. And, and to me that that's overall, whether, you know, it's, it's improving like, like fitness to me is like four things, right. It's, it's strength, cardio, flexibility, and mobility. Right. And balance part of me so it's just in those are things that i i just wanted broad health sort of goals and and i i didn't really focus on anything i'm not a competitive athlete i'm not sort of training for for anything specifically i i just want to be healthy right so

i just kind of like you got right the script man like it's it's it's it's not you know i i don't i don't have a goal if i want to squat a 500 pounds i i don't. Like it's, it's, it's, it's not, you know, I, I, I don't, I don't have a goal of, I want to squat a 500 pounds. I, I don't, you know, it's just, I just wanted to just make me better. Yeah. Um, when, when you get that initial report and you see kind of the, the depth of lab analysis And, um, I feel like when I, this is like a long time ago now, but, um, when I, when I initially got mine and it was like the things you need to work on, it's like cellular health. You're like, what? No one ever told me that. Like, that's the thing holding me back. Come on. Or like the, the, the deep dive into kind of sleep and, and how much that affects your life.

Were there any big takeaways where you were just like, oh, wow, nobody's ever told me these things. And how am I supposed to know that those are like constraints holding you back from getting where you want to be. So the thing that kind of was the biggest curve ball when I got that was I didn't know you could analyze someone's poop that much. Totally. And, and, and, and I like, even as a doctor, I mean, look, with the exception of that part, I understood, I had the knowledge or the language to understand virtually everything else that was in there. Yeah.

And, but it was interesting. The stool part was really interesting for me for two reasons. Number one was, or three. Number one is the breadth of analysis. I was like, wow, like this isn't like, you know, like, what is this? I didn't know what these things were. Number two was the fact that, um, you know, I, I had really, you know, growing up, I, I had some really irritable bowels, right?

Like my, my stomach was really not well. When I was a kid, I had multiple food allergies and the fact that I actually, it was an area that I scored actually pretty well with, you know, and you guys told me my stool was pretty good. That does not happen often. I mean, collecting it also was a bit of a chore, but we won't get graphic on the podcast. It's a rite of passage. Everybody's got to do it.

I know. You can't come and hang out with us without crossing the. In a French fry container. So, yeah. You would think it would be something different. But, no, man, listen, I think the rest of it, like, obviously, I knew what some of the metrics were that you guys were looking at. Although, the other thing that did kind of surprise me was I didn't think my sleep was as good as it is. I mean, I've definitely made it better

with the aura, the sleep tracking. I don't know if you guys know this too. I've invested in eight sleep as well. I've had that for the last couple months. I don't know if Chris... What temperature do you start at? I start about 15 Celsius. I don't know if that's the right height. I use the one to

10. The last thing that I do though is want to get in bed and be cold. Doug's a minus ten. He's psychotic. He's a minus ten when he gets in. He's freezing himself out. What's the lowest you can go? Whatever.

I don't know what the. So I'm one from the lowest. Ah, yeah, same. Oh, yeah, you guys are both not. There you go. So this is the other thing you guys had me do. And I was like, I told Chris, the only thing that I came close to with you guys saying, sorry, I'm not doing that was cold plunges. Yeah.

And really fine. I said, I was going to listen. I'm going to do this. Yeah. But amazingly. So here's the thing. I started taking cold showers like ice cold and remember i'm in canada dude so the water that comes out of the ground oh yeah so let's just just okay so the water and i know from my watch okay i'm getting down to 10 degrees celsius so what is that 10 divided by 2 5 18 plus 32 that's 50 degree water okay so that's pretty cold right and it's running it's not even stale right at the base of your neck that's really cold yeah and and i don't have anything on here like insulating cosine i'm with you so it freezes your brain so i started taking

them in the morning because i thought it would wake me up but about an hour later i'm exhausted so i'm like you know what wasn't working for me so i tried taking them before night my hrv shot up and my and my resting heart rate drop my resting heart was pretty good to begin with it was in the high 40s but i started hitting low 40s on some of these nights right so so that's that's the other thing that and and then the flip side of this i bought a dry sauna that i put in the basement too, in my little cave, Anders. I mean, it's not separate, it's in the basement, but my gym keeps expanding. My wife, every time I bring home another piece of equipment that Chris tells me to get, she's

like, you got something else? Yeah. But yeah, those are the things that I thought were, were, I mean, I knew generally what you guys were looking at, cause obviously you've done a good job is sort of breaking that down and part of that is also what we had to provide before um but yeah like again focusing on i was surprised a little bit when it was kind of like we're not making diet and exercise a priority your non-negotiables are again the three sleep supplement and cortisol stress management and so those are things i'm like okay that's what they want me to do that's what i'm going to do the uh i'm assuming the stress management side that was uh the sauna the

cold plunge was there breath work in there that you were implementing 100 had you been doing it it's the mind no uh a little bit a little bit but again it's one of those things anders where you're like okay what do i follow like everyone thinks they're a breath expert right so so so i've done a bit um you know i actually use box breathing a lot with my my patients particularly when they're nervous when i'm doing stuff on them but but um but, just even incorporating that even before sleep, trying to find time, I think, Anders, I think the other thing too, was learning how to dial it down. Like, there's a certain amount of cortisol that I like, I think I like to have a certain amount of stress. But I think I like to have a certain amount of stress, but I think sometimes, you know, there's a great book.

I actually gave it to Chris. It's called Reversing the Senses. And it just talks a lot about high achieving people. Part of what drives them is the fear of actually, quote unquote, being a fraud like they almost think that they shouldn't be like they're not really as as skilled and qualified as as people may think they are so it kind of like it's not about narcissism or whatever it's just this idea that kind of almost motivate and that's that's like you can be motivated out of desire you can be motivated out of fear and and and one's positive and one's negative and this is somehow there's an element of both for everybody right um but this talks about

how a lot of high achieving people are afraid that they're not achieving as much as they need to and they keep doing more and more and more this was the first time somebody in my life said okay listen you know what you actually have to carve out some time to just downregulate. And that's important for your system. You know, you got to drive that parasympathetic side. You know, we're going to do that through, you know, some of these temperature modulations, as well as the breathing. But the moment you're conscious of something, your brain's a really powerful thing, right? So if just to even be made aware of something in and of itself is a powerful thing like i think of knowledge in three buckets right there's what you know you know what you know you

don't know and what you don't know you don't know and it's i think this guy went to a landmark forum didn't he that's like one of the that's like one of the sorry landmark forum that's like one of their uh the three things that they talk about all the time the things you don't know you don't know it's like a famous california style self-help thing oh okay you can disagree i got that when i did my uh mba from kellogg that was like one of the probably the most in in in maslow's that was probably the the most important thing that i learned when i did my mba and and and and so it was like moving the moment you move something out of that that third bucket yeah you sort of mitigate that risk for some extent because then you can deal with it and

and that was probably one of the big things is is learning that hey man like you gotta this is something is a problem you got to deal with it yeah you're speaking of potential problems i know perry told us that you your calcium scores and kind of just your cardiovascular risk overall improved throughout the duration of the program as well can you tell us more about that so actually i don't know so little little tweak on that i'd never had a calcium test before okay so i turned 50 last year so i'm like okay i gotta go just you know i mean i like let me just go get a baseline on some of these other things uh because again being of southeast asian descent you know people that look like me the majority of us died from heart disease so i'm like okay you know my dad i mean it was in his 70s but he had a couple heart attacks i'm like look let me go get checked out so i had a calcium

test in what in uh october of 24 and yeah i had a score of zero which and my gp again who specialized like he he is southeast asian himself and has a lot of southeast asian patients as part of the reason i went to him uh was shocked he's like bad and he goes i would have thought somebody like based on your demographic i would have expected something right um you know so that with my vo2 max being in the 90th percentile from my age um you know i mean look it's not you know unless you do a ct angiogram of your heart which i mean that would be a bit overkill for me at this point um then you know i, I mean, my cardiometrics are pretty good. I mean, even on my aura, I'm like, aura says I'm minus eight from my age. My cardiovascular age is minus eight years.

So even that's improved since I got the aura. I think they started that last summer, the cardiovascular thing. It started at minus seven. So now about a month ago cardiovascular thing. I started at minus seven. So now about a month ago, and then I went to minus seven and a half, and then about a month ago, it hit minus eight. Yeah, dude, very cool. Wait, what was your VO2 max again? I think it was 49.

Okay. Yeah, dang. That's really good. I don't think I'd hit that right now, if I'm totally honest with myself. I haven't done my VO2 max, my like a real VO2 max in a long time, but, uh,

my cardiovascular state is not great right now. I feel like I would be in like the mid to low forties if, uh, if I'm totally honest with myself. I'm trying to find that. What is the, oh, oh,

you're crushing me. I'm only five and a half years younger than my age and cardiovascular age. I need to probably update the app. It'll get me to nine one thing i'd really like to see like the one the one metric i'm not happy with so far of all these my hrv is still pretty crappy i just wish my i know there's going to be a natural variability in this and some people whatever it's just it's the one thing now i i track my hrv with three different things i've got a garment i've got my aura and i've i mean eight sleep although eight sleep i think is not as accurate for that um there's about a 10 there's a consistent 10

point difference between what my garment gets and what the aura gets so on the aura i'm in the high 20s and in the garment i'm in the high 30s but what are you on the eight sleep pardon me what are you on your eight sleep uh it's it's actually closer to the garment but it seems to vary a bit more yeah i i have found that the or i don't have a third tracking device but i have found that the aura and my eight sleep are like much closer than i would have assumed they would have been. Okay. I don't have anything else to compare it to, but when they, when I,

when I finally got mine turned on after like two years of sleeping on it without it working and then they started sinking and I was like, wow, this technology thing is crazy. It's like, they really know what they're talking about. Yeah. The, the VO2 vaccine, you've done that, what, three times now with us? Twice. Twice. That's one of my favorite tests. That's a really hard number to move.

To get to that level and then see improvements when you're already inside kind of the top 10% on that a it's a really tricky one to i trained for an entire year to run a mile and it went up two points i was like what did i what a waste of time two points i wish that i wish i could have moved that thing like five six um and there's some genetic freaks that are in the like 60s and you're like, where did that come from? You know what's been really good for that for me? Do you know what I do for cardio mostly? I haven't seen the actual training plan, but no, I'd love to hear it. I use the Peloton.

Yeah, the cycling numbers Chris was saying have been fantastic. So I love it because the metrics on that thing, like it's so, I have a third-party app that syncs with the bike i actually upgraded my bike two years ago to the um and i i i have i don't own even any stock of peloton so i'm not trying to sell anything but um um i i had the old bike and i moved to the new bike that actually has a digital calibration for the for the power because i really wanted to get accurate on the power and so being really able to although it's not the same as going obviously on a bike outside and you don't have the the greenery and the sort of the change

in the balance obviously is an important part of cycling that you don't get on a on a stationary bike um but also not to worry about cars um. But the metrics and the consistency and the really zoning in on different powers and trying to modulate is so good there. And I really think I attribute my improvement in cardiovascular and just in terms of being able to really hit very specific power outputs or targets when I'm on the bike. Yeah. On the performance side, have you set kind of any, any bigger goals of races? Do you, do you do real cycling out on the roads? Not right now in Toronto. Don't do that. It's terrifying. You know what, honestly, Andrews, I, I back about in 2013, I was doing some triathlons and I did some Olympic tries as well.

I'd really love to get back into that because, again, the swimming was fun. Swimming is my strongest part. I was in the top 10% typically when I swam. It's like full contact swimming, right? It's actually a lot of fun. I didn't kick the head out there. But I'm like, I didn't mind it at all um you know the cycling i was typically in the top third just the running was a bit uh has always sort of been my achilles

um i probably have to lean up a little bit before i can really sort of do that a bit and i i'm gonna i'm starting a cutting phase with chris so hopefully i'll start uh shredding a bit um because i'd really like to to get back into that because it was interesting like you see a lot of the guys that are doing tries like the guys that are really performing well or you know unless they're like competing but I'm just talking about the average Joe Blow sort of armchair athlete are probably my age yeah right because they're not playing full contact hockey or basketball on the stop and then go because that's really you know it starts to really wear on your body, but you know, I mean, this is more endurance training and, you know, with good form, um, you know, even running can, can be okay.

Yep. There's a, there's a demographic that, uh, you get to, we're all in it where it's kind of like the, the speed and power things stop being the goal. I'm not signing up for any Olympic weightlifting meets anytime soon. It's just not going to happen. But you can go run a 5K, 10K, get in the water, and still be competitive without kind of like the beating on your body, that heavy lifting. And in general, you're not going to get to a track

and be sprinting 100s against people. Um, the, uh, one thing I, I, I know has been a very call it transformational piece of this or, uh, impactful, maybe a better word. Um, I always like to think people show up to, to rapid trying to get their labs read, trying to find the answers to what's holding them back from achieving what they want to achieve. And then two years later, you're still here. And a lot of that comes down to the coaching relationships. And I always say, people show up for the labs, and they stay for the relationships. I'd love to kind of dig into a little bit of the like you, Dr. Perry, just kind of many of the

pieces that you guys have connected on and how two years later, you guys are still chatting every week and kicking ass. Yeah. I mean, listen, I would say it's too cold for me, right? It's not just, I mean, yeah, I mean, Chris and I, you know, I know you guys sort of work to try to partner people up in terms of personalities and, you know, yeah, I mean, Chris and I, you know, I know you guys sort of work to try to partner people up in terms of personalities. And, you know, certainly, you know, Chris and I have bonded not just on fitness, but in other things, be it, you know, faith or, you know, even sort of perspectives of the world and whatnot. We have some, you know, deep discussions about that stuff. You know, I mean, and it's not just our weekly calls, you know, sometimes I'll text him in the middle of the week or different that if I, if I need something like, you know, he's, he's, we built that

relationship. And we certainly, you know, I think we certainly enjoy each other's company, but, but that's only, I mean, and, and, and, and obviously I, I appreciate and, and, um, respect and value that relationship, but, but it's not, that's only part of it though. And there's, I mean, there is, you know, the extended family like yourself and, and, and Doug and, and, you know, um, the, the, the, the nutrition and, and the breathing. Cause I know at the end of the day, um, you know, Chris is an expert on, on certain things. Um, but it's not just him, right. One person can't be an expert at everything yeah right and so there's a whole team behind this and it goes back circling back to what I started off with was you know like I want to do something that is founded in science I want to do something I

don't have the time to go do the research you guys have done the research I'm like okay I trust these guys I'm gonna I'm gonna put my my faith in them you know from the from the whether it's the vitamins or or whatever it is and plus the other thing too okay fine you do the labs and you do all the stuff but okay I don't know it didn't make a difference right like and and you only know if you made a difference if you retest yeah and you and you only know if you made a difference, if you retest and you come back and you do it again. Right. So otherwise like, like what's, what's, what are your end points? Like what are your KPIs? So, so, so there's, there's definitely, I would say it's twofold for me, Anders. It's, it's, yeah, the relationship is there and I'm not discounting

that in any way, but, but it is also just the, the journey of, of, of, of following all these other things that were important to me from the beginning yeah where do you feel like the kind of the the biggest levers that you'd like to be pulling to i know that we kind of guide the journey but where where do you feel like the your interests and improvement currently currently lie i think right now I just want to get shredded, man. I want to be in the cover of rapid. Here we go. So this man, cause I've looked, I've done the other stuff. Great Lake is in Toronto. That one, the beaches of Lake Erie. Here we go. I get that stuff that you guys wanted me to do. And I mean, I think ostensibly you guys have been pretty happy with the work that I've made on sleep on nutrition on

or at least on supplementation and the stress management not to say that we're going to stop doing those things we're going to continue to build like like we talked about right you achieve a level doesn't mean you don't stop trying to improve obviously moving from 70 to 80 is easier than moving from 80 to 90, right? There's more work that you have. There's diminishing returns, but that doesn't mean you don't keep trying. But now I'm like, okay, I just want to look good. Look, you got your business partner, best friend,

right next to you side by side in this journey. There's no bad time to take your shirt off and just flex right on your best friend it's the best look at how jacked i am yes i got my sleep and my cholesterol looks great my brain awesome look at these abs let's keep this thing surface level yeah yo does that actually help does having paul uh around like gary gets competitive in any way or is it collaborative it's kind of fun you pitch each other shit we um you know ironically we're not actually as I think you know honestly um Doug I would see you where the relationship with Paul probably comes in more is not when we're competitive it's when life is ebbs and flows and and when one of us is a little down uh you know like i i i've been

doing this for a month and you know the most frustrating part of the most frustrating part of the cut is you don't lose weight in the first little bit because you're establishing what your you know what your baseline is then you have to start cutting slowly right so it's like for that first month and weight dude what the hell like doing all this stuff it's not showing up and it's it's it's i think the relationship with paul having paul is not so much we're both highly individuals it's about when we're when we're feeling down about what we're doing or like you know like if if i don't and we're on a podcast i don't think paul would mind me sharing this but like i know he struggled a bit with his sleep right he he so it's kind of like i'm like dude

like it's okay like you know i'm doing a little bit better here you're doing a little bit better there it doesn't matter as long as we're moving in that direction don't get down about it like we're in this we're going to do this we've got a good team behind us i i would say to you actually that has been all jokes aside um that's probably been more substantive about doing this with my partner um yeah than necessarily yo man yeah like i think i got one more vein over here well i mean doug and i that was exactly how a lot of this kind of the the full came together. We were just doing it on our own. And, you know, kind of magically, we were three months into the program and down in Texas at the same time.

And we kind of looked at each other. We're like, I feel freaking awesome right now. Like, this is the best I've ever felt. And doing it together with somebody that you can kind of like share in the experience um because it's a subtle thing and then all of a sudden one day you just kind of wake up and we were we were actually down in Florida with a client a couple just before the holidays and his wife was saying the same thing he was like she went on a bunch of the kind of less specific protocol side of it that her

husband was like, just try some of this stuff with me. And she said she was just sitting there at a stoplight one day and she was like, crap, he's right. I feel amazing right now. Like I didn't want him to be right. I wanted to like say, this doesn't work. And then all of a sudden it just kind of like the slow steps that you put together and kind of the stacking of bricks in the right direction, all of a sudden adds up one day and you just go, holy crap, this is, this is amazing. It's like when, if your sleep is struggling and you start just focusing on it to put those pieces in place, the end result, it may take a

little while, but the end result is going to be something in a very positive direction. It may not be a hundred percent, but you, you will get there. And one day I kind of have that aha moment of, Oh, all the hard work pays off. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm happy to hear that you and Paul are very supportive of each other. It's rad to have someone that close doing the same program and you guys can lean on each other when you're experiencing the tougher times. Yeah.

It's easy to be motivated when you're not. All of this comes down to consistency, right? It's easy to be motivated when you're in a good mood. The most important days are the days that you stick to consistency even when you're not motivated.

Yeah. It's like the, uh, it's what entrepreneurs I think are so attracted to what we do here. Like the pro athletes, I think, um, it,

it's the same, it's the same brain. You just show up and practice every day. And without kind of focusing on like a specific end goal it's just how do we just keep getting a little bit better and um if you don't have that if you're like waiting for that thing and then you go oh i'm done it's not going to work anyways uh because there's still so many so many more layers that you need to get to but um that entrepreneurial and then call it athlete mindset which are they're

basically the same of how do we just show up and practice the right things every single day so that one day it just kind of clicks and and it it all pays off yeah injecting some leila hormosi into the podcast here one of her big things is fuck your feelings follow the plan yeah it's a great quote i think about that all the time if i'm feeling tired just fuck your feelings follow the plan yeah it's a great quote i think about that all the time if i'm feeling tired just fuck your feelings follow the plan just get after it yeah so um awesome man well are you on the social medias do you want to tell the people where they can uh follow you ask any questions all those all those things where can uh or just they need some eye surgery in toronto um yeah dude i guess I'm kind of a boomer, right?

So I'm just on LinkedIn. Phenomenal. Yeah, yeah. Like Instagram's not, yeah, I don't really get it. That's why you seem so happy. How's that? I don't really get it. Looking at people's best picture of the day?

Yeah, no. I mean, yeah, I just, I, I, my, my biggest social media platform probably is LinkedIn. Just use that for more professional purposes and, and sort of following news and stuff. Um, yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm not, I'm not one of those guys that, uh, Hey, look at me working out at the gym. Um, you know, don't do it. It's very nice not to be on it so yeah um well doug larson's on it tell us tell the people where they can find you bud i am with my own happiness in mind i've been spending less time on social media in general i felt at least last year now with with great

results but i still i am on instagram douglas larson uh but see you're great having you on the show uh i've talked with chris perry about you many times. Basir, great having you on the show. I've talked to Chris Perry about you many times. He seems very fulfilled having you as a client. You're making great progress. And I know you're the one putting in all the actual work here, but happy to have had some role in your success of being a healthier person. So appreciate you being here. No, man.

Listen, it's nice to be able to have the confidence in a team, people that are motivated, people that, you know, it just, it's, it's a vibe, right? Like, and, and, you know, again, having, you're not in this alone, right? And, and again, it just comes back to consistency, having the motivation. We're all human. We're going to have good days and bad days, you know being able to leverage you know look every day can't be a good day right otherwise and quite frankly if every day is a good day then you won't appreciate the good days when they happen right now and and so having a team um sort of behind you to do this and because ultimately

at the end of the day this is not not just mental, physical health. It's also mental health and mental wellbeing too, right? You know, it's all part of it. Yeah, absolutely. I love it, man. I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner and we are Barbell Shrugged at Barbell underscore Shrugged and make sure you get over to rapidhealthreport.com. That is where you can find out all things that Dr. Basir was talking about here, labs, lifestyle, performance,

and you can access all of that over at rapidhealthreport.com. Friends, we will see you guys next week.