Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #43 The Training Secrets of the Hollywood Stars with David Higgins

Episode Date: January 2, 2019

"How I hold myself during the day impacts how I feel."   At this time of year, many of us are wanting to kick-start lifestyle change. But where do we start? Personal trainer to the Hollywood stars, David Higgins, shares his top tips on this week’s episode. David believes that no matter who you are, the issues and obstacles are the same. We discuss how to bring about lasting behaviour change and create long term healthy habits. We delve into the problems of exercising with incorrect posture and the importance of breathing correctly. David explains how he empowers people to take control of their bodies and live fuller, healthier lives. I hope you find this conversation useful. Show notes available at drchatterjee.com/hollywood Follow me on instagram.com/drchatterjee/ Follow me on facebook.com/DrChatterjee/ Follow me on twitter.com/drchatterjeeuk DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've been taught almost from a health and wellness perspective to give our body and responsibility to somebody else, meaning sort of going to the doctor and say, this is what's wrong with me. What do I need to do to fix me? Or go to a physiotherapist and say, this is what's wrong with me. Fix me. And there is a lot of stuff that we can do for ourselves if we just bring ourselves back to the fundamental basics. And it is all generally because we just don't move the right way. And we have not been doing that for a very, very long time. Hi, my name is Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, medical doctor, author of The Four Pillar Plan and television presenter. I believe that all of us have the ability to feel better than we currently do,

but getting healthy has become far too complicated. With this podcast, I aim to simplify it. I'm going to be having conversations with some of the most interesting and exciting people, both within as well as outside the health space, to hopefully inspire you, as well as empower you with simple tips that you can put into practice immediately to transform the way that you feel. I believe that when we are healthier, we are happier because when we feel better, we live more. Hello and welcome to episode 43 of my Feel Better, Live More podcast. My name is Rangan Chastji and I am your host.

Before we get on to today's episode, just to let you know that low energy is one of the commonest complaints I see in my practice. And for that reason, I have created a free six-part video series to help you increase your energy so that you can get more out of life. You can sign up for free at drchatterjee.com forward slash energy. Now today's episode is all about behavior change and how we create long-term healthy habits. My guest today is David Higgins, someone who has been a personal trainer for many years, but recently has become known as Trainer to the Stars, training all kinds of celebrities such as Samuel L. Jackson, Claudia Schiffer, Colin Firth, and Naomi Campbell. We'll discuss if there is actually any difference between

training a Hollywood superstar and training a regular member of the public. David shares what he considers to be the three key factors in making any long-term lifestyle change, the problems of exercising incorrectly, as well as the importance of breathing. I chose this episode to kick off 2019, as I know many of you will be using the new year as a way of kick-starting lifestyle change. I hope you find it useful. Now, before we get started onto today's conversation, I do need to give a very quick shout out to our sponsors who are essential in order for me to be able to put out weekly podcast episodes like this one. Athletic Greens continue their support of my podcast.

Now, I prefer that people get all of their nutrition from their foods, but for some of us, this is not always possible. Athletic Greens is one of the most nutrient-dense whole food supplements that I've come across and contains vitamins, minerals, prebiotics and digestive enzymes. If you are looking to take something each morning as an insurance policy to make sure that you are meeting your nutritional needs, I can highly recommend it. For listeners of this podcast, if you go to athleticgreens.com forward slash live more, you will be able to access a special offer where you get a free travel pack box containing 20 servings of Athletic Greens, which is worth around £70 with your first order.

You can check it out at athleticgreens.com forward slash live more. Now, on to today's conversation. So David, welcome to the Feel Better Live More podcast. Thank you very much for having me. So David, you have got a brand new book out called The Hollywood Body Plan, and you are known as personal trainer to the stars. As my eyes roll, but thank you very much. That's very kind. Yes. Yeah. Just, just coming. Your eyes did roll. I'm sorry to start off with that, but you know, you have, um, trained people like, you know, Samuel L. Jackson, Claudia Schiffer,

Colin Firth, you know, all kinds of celebrities who many of us are very familiar with. But I guess I'm really intrigued as to what can I and Joe Public learn from what you have learned from training some of these, you know, world famous celebrities? Well, the funny thing is, I've only been only, I say only, I've only been doing film for about five years. My previous career was actually working in and around the London scene, own gyms and working with tens of thousands of clients over the last or previously 10 years. So it's actually what I've learned from everybody else and then implementing that into the film industry itself

is probably more of what and how I do things. And it's ironic that everybody is the same. Everybody has the same issues. Everybody has the same hang-ups. Everyone knows that they probably should work out more, knows they probably should eat more, eat better. And the only difference is that the support around a film production that is regarding Mr. Samuel Jackson or Margot Robbie or Claudia Schiffer

is that they have absolute access to the best people in the world to give them guidance. But at the end of the day, it's up to them to take themselves through the program and get up in the morning and attend and be there and be present and make the right food choices. So yes, they have the support, but realistically, it's still up to them whether or not they want to go out drinking and eating and having a great time at nighttime and then burning the candle at both ends or being relatively healthy and practical about it and go, no, I know that I have to be sharp for my life and to be the person that I want to be going forward. Yeah. I mean, that's really interesting for us to hear, isn't it? That ultimately,

with all the support, with all the money in the world, no one can do the work for you. Maybe systems can be put in place to make things a little bit easier potentially, but you're still the one who's got to go and eat the right food, do the workout that, you know, needs to be done. Needs to be done. Yeah, exactly. So if you're saying that everyone has the same hang ups and obstacles to improving their lifestyle, you know, what are those hang ups and obstacles? Consistency is one. I think that once somebody makes a plan and then they stick to it, then it's very, very hard to sort of go off the rails a little bit one way or the other.

So consistency, I find, is one of the most important things. If you lay out a plan and you stick to it, then you're going to be relatively okay. Making it a priority as well, because everybody can push things that aren't necessarily so important in their lives, you know, to decide and take the easier options. So making it a priority, that's really important as well. Oddly, but celebrating success. So I always in the Hollywood body plan book, I have an assessment at the beginning and we go, okay, this is where you are. And you take note of where you are. And it's a movement based assessment, uh, based around range of movements

of upper back, lower back, any pain, discomfort, anything like that. So you can, it's a very simple, upper back lower back any pain discomfort anything like that so you can it's a very simple easy to operate do-it-yourself assess yourself program and you go you can get a score at the end of and go okay fine this is where i am and after the first 21 days you can take that assessment again and go oh look i've improved in x y and z my core strength my flexibility my posture as a general um and then once they go through the transformational program again which is another sort of 13 weeks over that you can really see the difference so celebrating the success and establishing where you've come from is really really important is that celebrating success over 12 or 13 weeks, or is it literally

a daily celebration of success when you actually do your workout, let's say? The workout itself or the food that you've eaten or just the day that you've had, I think I'm a big fan of celebrating a bit of everything. Make it through that week, fine. Make it through the first 21 days, fine. Done it. Tick that box and acknowledge what you have achieved. Because I think that people are a little bit, they just, they don't celebrate as much as they should. They don't allow themselves to go, oh, I've achieved something. Yeah, it's interesting. I've been reading a lot about behavioral science recently in terms of, you know, what is it that makes somebody stick to a behavior? And quite often it comes up that reward mechanism that's, you know, for example, you know, if you eat sugar

and you have something deliciously sweet, you feel good, right? So there's an association that every time I do that, I feel good. So that's almost programming you to do it again, because you know that there's an immediate feeling of reward that you get. Whereas sometimes that isn't there for a lifestyle choice. Sometimes, sometimes it's like, well, I'm going to do this and it's going to help me in 10 years time or 15 years time. And a lot of these behavioral science guys do talk about rewarding yourself in some way every time you make a positive change. So in this book, I have gone back to basics. First principles, how to breathe. I think that we really have forgotten living this sedentary lifestyle that we all occupy these days.

One of my goals is to, I suppose, disrupt this chronic stillness that I find we, we are in. What do you mean by that? I know it's a really interesting sort of one liner, isn't it? Well, I really feel that we have been so disconnected from our bodies through, obviously through technologies. We've learned to exercise outside of ourselves just do what it is that the guy in the front of the class is doing and then that will be good for me in the long run you know we have started to um we have started to i suppose give our we've been taught almost from a health and and wellness perspective wellness perspective to give our body and responsibility to somebody else, meaning sort of going to the doctor

and say, this is what's wrong with me, what do I need to do to fix me? Or go to a physiotherapist and say, this is what's wrong with me, fix me. And there is a lot of stuff that we can do for ourselves if we just bring ourselves back to the fundamental basics. And it is all generally because we just don't move the right way. And we have not been doing that for a very, very long time. I mean, that's something that really struck me when I read through your book is you said something along the lines of I'm going to help you to move more, but also move better. And I think that's very interesting because, you know, it's not uncommon to go into a gym now and see someone, let's say, with poor posture, who is potentially accentuating and

exacerbating their problem with their posture, with the exercises they're choosing to do, because they're the standard exercises that everybody does. Is that what you're getting at when you say move better? Yes, as well as not only just move better, but I'm trying to bring an understanding into people of how they are currently moving, understand what they're doing, sort of not as well as they probably should, the conversatory movements that they are adapting and adopting for however long, and now bring that into this is how you are supposed to move.

So going back to the first principles in the book, it's how to breathe. We forget that our neck, our shoulders, and our chest should be doing roughly, I don't know, 15%, 20% of the inhale maximum. That's if we're taking a really deep breath in rather than our abdominal doing 80% of it. And unfortunately, it's the other way around these days because we sit down all day, we shrug, we hunch forward, we get our neck involved in everything. And it's just easier for that period of time to get the neck to do the breath um so bringing it back to those first principles of breathing and get the diaphragm actually doing what it's supposed to is really important i mean i was struck by that very early on in the book i

think maybe right at the start you talk about breathing and that surprised me because um i i also agree that breathing is very very important um to live to live yeah yeah so we can clearly we can all breathe yeah but can we breathe the right way the most efficient way and uh in in my book the stress solution i did a whole chapter on breathing and about how important it is and how breathing correctly efficiently in the right proportions, using your diaphragm mostly, and also using your ribs a little bit, and your neck, and all those things can help to lower your stress levels immediately. So it's interesting for me that I'm guessing now that people come to you, whether it's your celebrity clients or your Joe Public regular clients wanting to improve their physique and get

fitter, let's say. Do you talk to all of them about breathing? Yeah. You have to pepper it in a little bit. You can't just bang on for an hour about, now this is how you breathe because, oh God, they'll be walking out the door in two seconds so you've got to be you know you've got to be a little gentle with it and also but with regards as a good trainer a good trainer is somebody who gives the client what they want but also almost tricks them into training what they need sure as well um and i suppose if people start coming to you and you get a little bit more of a reputation and and they come to you for reasons to fix themselves, fix them from issues that they are having because of lifestyle, because of whatever and however they've gotten injured or whatever it is, then you have a little bit more room to move to go, no, this is how we do things and and i do with whomever i train with whoever i work with whether it's on the film or in my gyms um it's the same process i will always give them the first fundamental 21 day reset program that is that is in the hollywood body plan because it brings

everybody up to speed and it gets them consciously moving in the right way and they are aware that oh so how i hold myself during the day impacts how i feel and that is it's not just i'm just going to go to the gym for an hour and and tick that box you go to the gym for the cherry on the top it's the 23 hours during the day that well apart from sleeping obviously but it's the other hours of the day that are really going to make that that shift i mean david i think that's a very important message isn't it we've you know we've outsourced so much of our health to other people and to other things so the gym for example you know people are constantly trying to motivate themselves to work out and get So the gym, for example, you know, people are constantly trying to motivate

themselves to work out and get to the gym. Let's say that's their chosen place to work out. And I see this with my patients all the time. If they have gone to the gym, that is a big enough achievement in itself. That's a big tick. It doesn't matter what you did at the gym. Were you exacerbating your postural problems was it the most efficient workout for you in the context of the rest of your lifestyle hey the fact that you went to the gym was a tick and of course i recognize that you know for someone who's trying to get active yeah that is a great start um but that's fascinating isn't it i mean what is the what is the right form of exercise and movement for you. So what, well, we'll get into this 21 day program

that you put everyone on, but I'd love to understand a bit about your journey. I mean, you're, we're sitting here in London in Camden town at the moment having this conversation, but you were born in Australia, right? Yeah. Born and bred in Australia, in Melbourne. So how do you get from Melbourne to London? I used to play Australian rules football at a very competitive level. And at the same time, I was studying my exercise rehab degree. And I got injured playing football and I dislocated my shoulder. I tore my ribs from my sternum. And it was an interesting time as a 19-year-old.

And luckily because I was learning what exercise rehab was at university, I then had to work out how I can rehab myself. And trust me, going through that process, I understand pain. I understand what discomfort and pain and agony really does feel like and also to overcome it and then what you have to do to overcome it. And so I put my learnings, I suppose, into practice. And over a year or so, without having to have surgery, I got back to full range of movement and back playing again.

But... And is that, did that exceed what your doctors and team had said at that time? Was it, was that... I mean, at the time, it was always about, you need to go into surgery. And for me, surgery is the last resort. If I, you know... If you need it, you'll you know, if I needed it, I'll do it, but

I knew that I'll do my absolute best not to do that. Um, so for me, it was, it was, it was, it was a one way trip to make sure that I was able to do what I needed to do. I guess that, that leads to the question, you know, you're presumably a big part of what you do is help people engage in behavior change. And you, like many of us, myself included, had adversity that almost persuaded you that you had to look at things a slightly different way and figure out what you need to do in your own life to get healthy again. In your experience as a trainer, and this applies to everyone, do you feel that we all need a certain level of adversity sometimes to motivate that behavior change?

Unfortunately, unfortunately, yes. I've been racking my brains for the last however long going, what is going to help people and how can I convince them to help themselves? And the only way that people get there is to get there by themselves, on their own, and they may or may not be very, very close to a very, very scary proposition, an alternative of you're going to fork in a road. You're either going to go turn right and keep on going down this road and who knows what's going to happen, or you're going to turn left and you're going to fix yourself, help yourself and live a happier, healthier, pain-free life. And I have the hope that that is exactly what, you know,

this book is going to help people to do, but also to hopefully give some guidance and support along that way as well, which is where I get the kick out of, by the way. I love helping people overcome this adversity, overcome this fear, fear, this, this constant wake up in the morning on my back, or, you know, I can't play with my kids because of X or Y or shoulder or knee or hip or whatever it is. Um, and to get them through that process, that's what gets me up in the morning. Yeah, no, I, I very much resonate with that because, um, you know, one of the things I love about my job as a doctor, as a GP, is how can you connect with that person in front of you and inspire them to make change? Because I don't think that, you know, I don't think knowledge is enough for everyone.

You know, I think most people now in society know that, you know, they should probably be moving more than they currently do. But knowledge doesn't necessarily lead to change. And one thing I really liked in your book is you put towards a start, I think, you've got to figure out why do you want to do this? What is your motivation for doing that? And can you tell me a little bit about that? Why do you think that's so important that someone understands their motivation? I think that if somebody is going to, if a client comes to me or if they read this book and they go, yeah, you know what? I want to, I want to have six pack and look like an absolute Adonis on the beach

and I'm going to pick up the Hollywood body plan. Um, now that person will absolutely get some really interesting fundamentals out of this book and then hopefully change their perspective on things. But that person is purely driven through aesthetics. Um, and unfortunately that's not going to give you the motivate enough motivation to get you past that three-week, four-week, five-week process in trying to change your lifestyle. What will give you that motivation to change the way that you live, the way that you move, the way that you eat, your lifestyle as a general, is a real reason why. And the real reason why is to not just overcome pain, but to live a happier, healthier, longer life so that you can be as active, as switched on, as sharp at work as you possibly can be, to be that person who you want to be. Now, that is a serious goal.

That is a fantastic reason as to why you want to change, not to lose weight in two weeks. Yeah. And so that's my entire philosophy. We are looking for long-term change. Yeah, I mean, I love it. That's why this podcast is called Feel Better, Live More because it's not just about,

oh, it's important to make lifestyle change because it will help me lose weight. Of course, that may be the goal for someone. Of course. But it's more about that when you feel the best that you can be, I think you get more out of life. You get more out of your relationships, more out of your work,

more out of your free time, more out of your holidays, more out of everything when you feel as good as you can. And there was a bit of your free time, more out of your holidays, more out of everything when you feel as good as you can. And there was a bit in your book that, you know, I think page six, the quote, it was brilliant. The human body is amazing. Just think of everything it can do. It will support you and sustain you if you take care of it. That's why we should treat it like a temple. Instead, most of us vandalize our bodies. We don't carry out maintenance early enough. Instead, allowing damage to build up by failing to correct postural problems when they first

appear. I think that was incredible. It really sums a lot of things up there. And you talk about posture, and I think that's, it's really important because A, with poor posture, if you do the wrong movements, you can access, you can, you can. You will, not just can, you will. Yeah. You, you will make that posture worse. Um, but it's, it's as if we don't, we wait for pain before we start addressing things. It's like, hey, you know, yes,

I'm a bit hunched over, but I'm not in pain so I can keep going going but at some point that will come and bite you on your bum won't it well pain is subjective first so what somebody you know somebody could get roll an ankle and and still ride a skateboard and go ah it'll be fine versus somebody rolling ankle be you know saddle up saddled up in their bed for however many. So pain firstly is definitely subjective. And that's a big thing because if you are worried about, I just don't want to hurt myself even more. If you're in that mindset of, I just don't want to do anything or upset the apple cart because I might exaggerate it a little bit more, then unfortunately, you're on that negative spiral. Because if you don't do something that you know that you probably should be doing,

or if your body will build up, it's these mechanisms, these guards, these different movement programs that will shift the focus, probably unconsciously. Sometimes you might not even realize it. My back's a bit dodgy. I'm going to use the armchair. So I'm going to twist and push my hand down, use the armchair, and lift up that way as opposed to just standing up straight and using your abdominals to do the job.

the job uh that those kinds of movements they really do uh add up over periods of time to until one day you're you bend down and you pick up the shopping bag put it away in the shop and your back goes and and and like dave i don't they come to me like dave i don't know what happened all i did was just pick down go down and pick up the shopping. My back did. I said, well, unfortunately, it's not the shopping bag that did it. It's the 10 years previous that you ignored for however long, and now you're at a place where you're in pain, you're in discomfort, and the quick fix that we could have probably solved your issue back then unfortunately is sort of out the

window a little bit now. And so we need to make sure we change the way that you move, changing and adapting the way that you move, firstly, recognizing how you're moving, and then changing it from there. Yeah, I think it's a great point. And so many of us, we need that tragedy to happen, whether it's with our body or our back pain or, you know, a sudden acute bit of back pain where you suddenly can't do the things that you used to do. I think I've said it, I think before many times that most of us take our backs for granted until something happens. And then we realize, oh, we use our backs for pretty much everything that we do. I know me in my 20s when I had really bad back problems, that was very much the case. And, you know, when I had those back problems,

I would avoid movements that exacerbated them or put a strain on them. But I realized that I would do that year in, year out. And before you knew it, I was just avoiding certain movements. And it's only since I properly got to the root cause and rehabilitated my back. Was it your feet? It was my feet. It cause and rehabilitated my back. Was it your feet?

It was my feet. It was? It was my feet. I told you. It was my feet. It's always, it's most of the time starts from there. That's incredible. Yeah.

I've done a podcast with someone called Gary Ward a few episodes ago in the podcast. And he was the guy who... Arch collapse? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My right foot was stuck in pronationation it was very flat yeah and gary gave me a series of exercises to do and you know five years on well longer than five years on now

i've got an arch in my right foot yeah without an insult right there because i've started using my feet properly i do exercises on them and it's just incredible that was never actually a back problem it was my back was taking the strain yeah for other problems in my in my biomechanical system yeah and it's only when i started training yes the foot but also as part of a whole body movement yes but now i do everything that i used to avoid i can now do with no problems i'm not even it's a confidence as well it's confidence i'm not even one percent worried that my back's gonna go i know you're fine my back is bulletproof now yeah and some people say no wrong and be careful you had you had all these

problems i don't need to be careful because i know i fixed it yeah and but equally if you don't keep on top of it yeah it's not it's not like a you have to be mindful of it the whole time because if you're naturally that way inclined you know you know i could as long as i keep on top of it it's like my shoulder is exactly the same thing i know that if i don't constantly keep my shoulder in good position like writing this book my god i tell you what talking about being hunched over in front of a computer um like just having to reset that whole thing. You really have to be aware. And I've never, luckily from my perspective,

my job is to help people and not be at the desk all day. So to sit down and really write for hours on end, for months on end, I really felt what people feel. Why did you write the book? Can I ask? Um, because I wanted to, I felt that I could help a larger amount of people,

um, understand and hopefully just gain a little bit more knowledge and, and hopefully try to dispel some myths possibly that it's it's it's the the only way uh drugs and surgery um yeah and and to to promote health and wellness the best way that i could possibly know how to yeah it's a great writing book it's a great medium to impact a lot of people cathartic yeah i mean i i don't know how you found it but what i found is that a lot of things i used to do intuitively with patients yeah um trying to articulate that exactly it's how do you how do you actually structure that and

you know you almost have to order your thoughts and write in the book, then you almost know the material better than beforehand because you've actually had to structure it. Yeah, absolutely. I feel it's made me a better practitioner of what I do by writing the book because now I think I've, I've just more ordered and you're sort of nodding your head. I totally agree. Totally. 100% agree. And a lot of what I say to my clients and my general principles about things, I had to, before I wrote it, I'm like, actually, is this still right? Because what we learned at university and what we continue to learn, what they say over there is when I was, the professor told me once, he said, okay, guys, 50 what you what we are teaching you is right 50

is wrong we just don't know which 50 is going to be and and we're like what were you talking about as a kid at university you don't know what that means but as you go through this this journey in this industry um and you get the experience which is everything obviously and working with bodies and people and and how to convince them, influence probably is a better word, influence them to make the right choices and help them that way. Before writing it down, I had to just double check that everything that I was saying is still relevant.

And 80% of it was, 20% of it wasn't, and another 20% was like, oh, okay, that's an interesting perspective. I didn't really think about it like that. And that has also really leveled me up as a trainer as well, working in the industry. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it fascinates me to hear your insights from writing your book. So this 21-day program, okay, that you put everyone on, whether you're Claudia Schiffer or you're...

Margot Robbie, Samuel... Who else is on the title here? Let's just say Samuel Jackson. Rebecca Ferguson from Mission Impossible. Yeah, no, I've been... All those guys, but also the guy next door who's looking for help with their physique and their fitness. So can you walk through some of the principles in it?

What do you do? Is correcting postural imbalances part of that? Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, how I work is that usually I, how it works rather, is that you, if you are effectively working on one area of the body, you know you need to be working on everything of the body. Like you said, your back sore, it's because your ankle foot collapsed. Just because you work on one thing, it doesn't mean it affects anything else and vice versa. So what I've done from the approach of breaking it down is that you teach in isolation at the beginning and generally from a movement perspective. Do you mean body parts in isolation? Body parts in

isolation. So you activate. So we sit down on our butts all day, which means that unfortunately our glutes, which are the major stabilizers of our bodies, tend to sort of shut off a little bit and not work as well, which puts strain and pressure on our lower back and our hamstrings take more of the work, or our hips and hip flexors do it. So we have to establish glute activation as a primary. We have to establish better core activation, control your breath through that engagement, and then you can interconnect those two fundamental pieces of the body,

and then you can promote active movement from there. So you work from isolation into integration of general movements. So people are starting quite small, are they, in terms of little movements, just trying to retrain the body, the right movements. So people are starting quite small, are they, in terms of little movements, just trying to retrain the body, the right movements. Connect your brain to your muscle. Yeah, and once you've got that, then you can move on to... Then you can move.

And are these movements that people need to join a gym for or they can do in the comfort of their own home? No, it's all based at home and it is... I've stripped away as many obstacles as possible so people can... It is a handful of...'s a there's a foam roller in there my beloved foam roller um there there is a couple of sort of mini thera bands and exercise bands but it's all very very easy to to manage and very hopefully cheap to buy anyway

so very accessible for most people totally um and and how is it something we have to do every day or is it something that they can first 21 days every day every day okay and how long per day it's about roughly 21 minutes for the exercise program every day and as you build up that 21 minutes um it will for the first couple of days until you get into the flow of it, it might be 25 minutes or so just to sort of understand what it is you're doing. But every week for the first 21 days, so seven days, you start on a Monday, finish on a Sunday, then you go to the second workout, start on a Monday, finish on a Sunday,

third workout. So you've gone through three weeks of 21 days, and you're establishing your baseline level of just movement, structure, practice and engagement. From that, there is also, if you wanted to, there is also an intermittent fasting program that runs concurrently with that 21 day fasting period. So if you were down the road of, you know what, I want to lose weight, I want to be healthier, I want to move more, but I want to also correct myself posturally before I go and jump around wherever it is I want to do, the movement that I want to do,

then this is the book definitely for you. It gets your absolute fundamental movements down and you are going, oh, okay, I didn't realize i did that oh that's a bit sore that's i can't feel that engagement why can't i so that's interesting isn't it it's starting to connect to what your body's doing you said we become disconnected from our bodies in some ways it sounds like your first 21 days are reconnecting or reconnecting and bringing that back yeah it's we call it the reset the reset 21 day reset. And then from the 21 day reset program, then you can go on to that 13 week transformational program. Yeah. One of the things I noted down when I was reading your book is you spoke about Pilates and you said that Pilates was great for you, but not perfect.

for you, but not perfect. So you pulled apart its philosophy and tweaked it. And I really resonated with that actually, because I thought, is that something we all need to do to a certain degree, instead of outsourcing it to somebody else? Yes, we need somebody else maybe to teach us some principles, but then we need to understand what works for us and what's not working so well for us. Is that something that many of us can learn from, you think i hope so i mean just because there is a practice out there whether it's pilates whether it's yoga whether it's whatever it is out there these principles if taught correctly um are just a guideline they're a guideline and they are hopefully once you've mastered them then you can it gives you that that ability it's a bit like learning to drive a car for the first time and you can you you know where your hands are 10 on the 2 on the steering wheel you adjust the mirrors you put your seat

belt on and then once you've passed hopefully uh then you can start to put a little bit of flair into it. And that's effectively what is most important about this book, is that you understand the fundamental principles of how you should move. And then you can add on top of that yourself. Well, I guess a common mistake I think that people make, maybe it's not a mistake. Uh, a common occurrence is that let's say in January, which is the typical time of the year for this, um, where people want to get fit, right. And they think, okay, right. This is the year I'm going to go and do get properly fit and do my workout program. Oh, I like this thing that I've just read in a magazine. I'm going to go and do that. I'm going to do loads of box jumps and whatever other high intensity type movement

they want to do. Whilst I think that has benefits, do you see a big problem sometimes when people are doing that? They haven't done the basics. They've got hunched over bodies. They've got glutes that don't fire appropriately. And then they're going off,

trying to put a load of weight onto a structure. And already out of position structure. Yeah, it's that problematic. Totally. I mean, imagine you sit down all day. I use this analogy or this story. You sit down all day at the office or wherever in the car, and you will naturally fall out of position. So your body gets used to whatever position it gets put into.

It adapts, right? It adapts. It adapts positively or negatively, and you get these, and I call them chair-shaped bodies, walking into a gym to do the right thing, to do a good thing for themselves, to feel better about themselves, to whatever it is, to get a good sweat on. And that's all fantastic, amazing.

However, you have to understand that if you load an already overloaded system, so if you want to bench or if you want to squat or whatever you are using those same muscles that have been holding you up in that seated position rather than going actually you know what i need to reset understand that my lifestyle is x i know that i need to probably do something before I'm going to lift that weight. And to get the most out of that workout, that's where this Hollywood Body Plan program comes in. And it is just that basic fundamentals of resetting what you've been doing to yourself for 10 years, 15 years, however long you've been doing it for. And it is, the body is so,

it is such an amazing thing that it adapts, like I said, positively, if you just give it a little bit of love. And that's what this is really all about. I guess 21 days of doing what, 21 minutes a day, or let's call it 20, 25, something like that. So let's say, what's that? Seven days of, you know, that's like 104, let's call it 150 minutes. And you implement what you're learning and doing in those 21 days throughout the rest of the day. But that's actually over three weeks, that's, let's say 450 minutes that you are actually putting your body first saying, Hey, I'm giving you 450 minutes of love over this three weeks, which actually 450 minutes is what sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But it's only 20, you know, it's not far off 20 minutes a day. Um, no excuses, by the way, no excuses.

Okay. So what would you say then to somebody who's listening to this, who goes, look, I just want to get fit. I want to get cracking. I don't have time for 21 minutes a day. Yes, you do. Do it when you're watching TV. Do it when split it up 10 minutes in the morning and night. You have time. Listen, I totally understand. I've got a young family. I am up early, early, early with the kids. I am obviously back home late after work. There is very limited time to do anything more than I can possibly do.

But if you don't make this a priority and if you don't, if you actually want to make lasting long change, you have to change something. And that is to implement this little nugget gold mine of information that will hopefully grow and grow and grow so that you can help yourself long-term to become that person that you want to be. Yeah, very powerful, David. And, um, you know, we know that our lean muscle mass is one of the strong, one of the biggest predictors of how well we're going to be as we age. But I think mobility

is so important as well, because yes, we're all living longer now, but what are we going to be able to do in those final years in the last decade, in the last two decades? Are we still going to be able to carry shopping up two or three flights of stairs? Are we going to be able to pick things up from the floor, play with our children or grandchildren? And I think that piece gets missed a lot, which is why I'm so delighted to have seen that in your book, is that whole mobility piece, the whole posture correction piece. It's not just about working out more, it's about working out better. Smarter. Yeah, and smarter. And of course, some people choose to do that with you, but what you've tried to do is say, well, hey, I've been doing this for a long time and it doesn't matter who

I'm training, whether they're some of the most famous people in the world or some people that we've never heard of, actually the problems are still the same. Yeah. And that I think is a very empowering message actually. Um, the other thing that I thought was very new about what I saw was that you talk about some of the exercises. I think, I think this is after the 21 day plan plan, but you do some exercises which also incorporate stimulation of the central nervous system. Can you explain that? Of course. So there is a whole chapter dedicated to stimulating the central nervous system in a positive way. So recalibrating myofascia. And fascia is, what's the best way to explain it? It has an effect.

It affects everything. And if you can stimulate, for example, if you can release the fascia in the bottom of your feet by rolling a little golf ball underneath it for 30 seconds, you can lengthen your hamstring flexibility and decrease the load on your lower back. So what it is, it's a whole chain of, I explain it like cling film. Cling film that's wrapped around, and this isn't a woo-woo thing.

This is actually scientifically proven, that it is attached to every ligament, every organ, every muscle, every chain of muscular systems within the body, goes from the bottom of our feet up to our eyebrows. Okay, what do you think lifts our eyebrows? That's, you know, attached to at the bottom of your feet. And if you roll and release the fascia at the bottom of your feet, sometimes you'll see and find that people,

their headaches start to dissipate and go away. And so what this whole chapter is, it's a very cool chapter, and I'm very, very proud of, that I will teach you some quick fixes how to disrupt and in a positive way the how your body is holding its tension and the muscular system underneath that fascial chain to release and relax so it's all about uh increasing your mobility i'm trying to hack that central nervous system and give you the ability to go okay my lower back sore so what do i have to do to release it and i'll give you these little mechanisms or my neck is really sore i've been hunched over all day in the office

you know what i'm going to do i'm going to self-massage and self-correct and it just is very very powerful stuff. Yeah. And it's great that you're giving people these tools to do without the need to necessarily see you. They can apply these tools at home. And there must be a lot of hacks here that you have picked up over the years

from dealing with hundreds, thousands of people and helping them improve their lives. You're able to give some of the best bits of that for people, which is fantastic. Running. I want to talk about running. Okay. Because I've had a few guests on the podcast who have talked about how running has changed their lives. You know, they've, they, they just find it incredible. You know, I spoke to someone called Vassos Alexander, um, William Pullen. They've got some really profound stories about how running improved mental health, the way they feel. It's had positive impacts onto many other aspects of their lives.

And those podcasts always do really well. People like them, but there's always a few people who will comment saying, look, that's great and brilliant for him, but I can't run or I need to be careful about running because I've been told it's going to affect my joints as I get older. And you talk a little bit about this in the book, don't you, about running? I mean, I personally am a runner. I love, and I have been forever. But if I don't these days, it's sad to say, but I feel like I have to warm up longer than i even must run the you know these days but i am on the foam roller for a good 20 minutes before i go for a run and i go for either a 5 or a 10k um come back and i'm on it again for a good 10 minutes post um and that

little routine is all in the book uh but what that helps me do is just helps my body recover and be able to run because it clears my head. I love it. And what I find very difficult, I suppose, sometimes, is when people have gone to a practitioner within the industry at whatever level and they say, you can't do. Don't do X. Don't do Y. You can't run. You can't whatever it is, squat, lunge, whatever. So then they come to me and they go, I can't do this because they told me that I

can't. I'm like, okay, so you can't squat. Okay they told me that i can't i'm like okay so you can't squat okay fine so what do you do how do you go to the toilet uh how do you walk lunge is effectively a a walking pattern just slightly changed so i have to hopefully try and give and dispel that and try and take that away because the thing is that if somebody tells somebody that they can't do something because their lower back's sore or whatever, their knees are short, whatever, I get it. They are literally kicking the problem into the long grass,

take some pain meds and don't run. That'll help. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. The problem is, is because you're moving incorrectly and your mechanics are slightly off and they have been off for however long. And it's all fixable. We can make a big change if you just stick to these. It's like this book I i wrote it's like bumper

bowling throwing it down the lane you are bound to hit some pins you cannot lose it is very easy to absorb hopefully and the principles are the same so that people everybody from any kind of injury or chronic issue that they have, or even if they've been told that they can't do something, they can't bend over and touch their toes because their muscle, their back will go into spasm. I had a client, a totally normal client, by the way. I'm not even going to, you know.

And she was told that for 10 years, she said, a practitioner of some medical description said, don't touch your toes. You're not allowed to touch your toes. You can't do it. And I just thought, how is that? How is that even? How can you even do that? So a foam roll at the bottom of her feet.

This is what I did. A foam roll at the bottom of her feet. I got her to close her eyes. I said, now, bend over and touch your toes. And she's like, no, no. I said said now bend over and touch your toes and she's like no no but I said just bend over and touch your toes and in a spate of about 5 minutes

she was able to touch her toes for the first time in 10 years and she was like in tears she had no idea that just from some foam rolling on the bottom of her feet some hip mobility exercise some core activation some glute engagement which is all in the book yeah it gives them back this sense of just freedom and life and i'm like oh my god i can't believe i haven't been able to thought that i thought that i couldn't do it freedom and life isn't that says

it all with you it gives you know got intense then sorry else i know but it's important and it's i think it's hopefully really empowering and inspiring people to go well hold on a minute now of course some people may have got an issue which actually you know for good reason they're not allowed to do something i'm nodding my head i'm nodding my head here yeah and and we get that but i i agree with you that many people are told not to do things. And actually, you're just treating a symptom by not doing that thing. Sure, you're not exacerbating that, but you're not exploring, you're not allowing the body to heal and recover. You know, if I think back to my 20s when my back was really bad and I literally went around to every single therapist who I could think of who might help me. And some of them would give me short term relief. Quick fix, yeah. That's in the book too, by the way,

you can do that. Yeah. But then within a week or two, it would come back because I hadn't addressed the underlying movement pattern that meant that my back was taking the strain. So what's really interesting, I actually have taken up running in quite a big way this year. I say a big way. I started off doing the park run with my son and my daughter on a sunday morning which is just 2k when i do that with them love it and the last few months i've started doing the 5k on a saturday morning again with my son and i enjoy it but i know in my 20s i could not have done that because my back would have started to play up now why is it that i can now do it? It's because I've done the work addressing the imbalances, the five minutes sometimes a day. And that's for what it was for me.

It was five, sometimes 10 minutes a day I've had more time on my feet, on my hips, getting them moving. And now my biomechanics are so much better that I can run, I can put load on my body and I'm not getting any bad pain. And how much older are you now? Yeah, 15,

20 years older. Exactly. But I think that's a really powerful story there for some of us that, you know, if your knees hurts when you run, sure, maybe you've got osteoarthritis, but maybe it's because most likely, yeah, at least try. Yeah. Maybe your feet aren't firing properly. Maybe your glutes aren't firing properly. Maybe your hips are tight. And therefore when you run, you're putting more load on an already imbalanced system and therefore your knees hurt. Whereas if you maybe, you know, do your 21 day reset program and spend a bit of time trying to, uh, correct some of those imbalances, um, you know, you'll be able you know, you'll be able to run. You'll be able to run. And I think I would certainly encourage people to try.

It's a bit like a car, isn't it? You know, in some ways, if you're, I don't know, let's say your car has got, or you're on the left side, both tires are a bit flat. Then if you keep driving, if you put a lot of load, a lot of speed or a lot of distance on, you're going to wear out the car a lot faster than if all four tires were equally pumped up and in balance. It's probably not a perfect analogy. I've got another one. I've got another one. Are you ready? Okay. I love analogies too. It's a bit like brushing your teeth. Okay. If you don't brush your teeth for a couple of days okay you know you can probably get away with it but if you don't brush your teeth for a year for two years or three years or four years or ten years then they're going to probably fall out of your head and if you don't

look after them then that's exactly what happens the body body just is like, well, if you disrupt this plaque on your teeth by flossing and brushing, then guess what? There's not going to be a buildup. But if you really just give it a couple of minutes a day, just keep it, get it in there as a habit, and your body and your teeth will love you forever. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. I think it's a really, really nice analogy. Um, so coming towards the end of the conversation, David,

before we get to the final question, I'm, I'm interested. You, you mentioned that you have got a young family. You've got, um, three boys. How old are they? Six, three and one. Okay. So very, um, in a busy time, let's say, you've got a busy job. Don't know what you're talking about. And you've got three young kids. So how do you stay motivated and how do you fit in time in your already busy day to work on your own body? body? First of all, my reason why I do what I do is not only because obviously I love it, but the reason why I do what I do is because I love being in the climbing frame as soon as I walk through the door. The boys just run and jump and we play and we have a great time. We have a wrestle and we roll around. And just that for me is my reason why currently. When they're older

and teenagers, I'm sure that might change but for now that's my reason um and if i don't look after myself uh and make time for myself whether that's at home and and do some some basic uh fundamental programs uh like that i have in my book and or the general workout, doing some Pilates or some yoga or whatever, lifting some weights, whatever it is, I know that I cannot be my best self for those kids. It's a bit like putting your, you know, putting your, what is it when you're in an airplane, put that mask over your face first before you look after everybody else.

You can look after yourself a little bit for as well and it is it is just a part of my day it is not as is not a oh i should do it is just that's just you you've built it in you've built it in yeah yeah wow so you've got a powerful why um and certainly i know for me as a father of kids who are a little bit older than yours um well not all of them but eight and six are the ages of my children and they've been a very powerful motivating factor for me i must say again my why has changed since i've had kids it is now very similar to yours i love being able to do the things that they do i love watching them move and think wow like the way the kids can just drop into squats. I just marvel at it every time. Literally my son's tired of me telling him, I'm like,

wow, that's an incredible squat. Isn't it? And it's just perfect. Just perfect. Straight back, you know, no tightness. Whereas daddy's trying to get in, so I can do it, but I'm, you know, as he knows, I'm currently working on my squats to improve it and make it easier. And so I do a lot of things like when we're playing cards or if I'm playing chess with them, I'll do it in a squat. Yeah. Kick your shoes off. Yeah. Because then I'm playing with the kids, but I'm also working on yourself at the same time.

Totally. And it's not like I have to separate that into a different part of my life. No. And I think for anyone who can actually do things like that, as you said right at the start, do the workout while you're watching TV. Yeah. Still watch your favorite show if you want. Just do something for yourself at the same time. Yep.

Well, David, look, I've really enjoyed the chat. Thank you so much for making some time. I know you are on call for, I think, a film set at the moment. So you've come out. No one has interrupted us, which is brilliant. set at the moment. So you've come out, no one has interrupted us, which is brilliant. I wonder, the goal of this is to inspire every single listener to become the architects of their own health. And I always like to leave the listeners with some tips that they can think about applying immediately into their everyday life. I wonder if you have three or four tips that you could

share with the listener that might inspire them to get going. Of course. The most important thing that I will always try and promote is correct posture. So we can correct our posture anytime, whenever we think about it. So throughout the day, if the phone rings, sit yourself up, chin tucked. And how I position the head, the head, the body follows the head in so many ways. But in regards to posture, if you reset your head, generally your shoulders will sit back and down and you'll sit a little bit more taller. So if you look down your nose at somebody, imagine you were looking down your nose at somebody anyway, and that little drop of the chin and a little pull back, then your shoulders nice and relaxed and they sit back and down.

a little pull back, then your shoulders nice and relaxed and they sit back and down. That will help mitigate against a lot of the rounded chronic issues that we find ourselves. So just sit up as we're talking about this. We're back to it, aren't we? Our posture's changed completely. So we're sitting. So tuck that chin as you're listening anyway. Tuck that chin,

look down your nose at somebody in front of you or the car in front of you, drop your shoulders and just realign that posture. What's really, in the car, I always say use the headrest for a reason when you're sitting down in the car or in your desk. That's a good set. So adjust your chair enough so that you're sitting back enough so that the back of your head is in constant contact with with the headrest and it's supported and it's supported and then that will force your shoulders to sink back and down because they're not going to be hanging and holding your head up yeah um so that's the first one uh second one is breath and i have spoken about this previously just very basic but nice, easy exercise that everybody can do is a nice box breath. So you've got one hand on your diaphragm, one hand on your chest, and you just for a minute, just for a minute, maybe even two if you have it, start it for five, breathe out for five,

and at the bottom of that exhale, hold it for five and continue that box breath of five in, five at the top, five seconds out, five at the bottom. Do that for about 20 or so breaths, then you will be in a completely different state. Yeah. Okay, that will center you and you will feel significantly better. I also promote in the book, we haven't discussed really hugely amount,

but be mindful of your eating. If you're eating at 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night, pizzas, burgers, ice cream, I promote intermittent fasting of a 16 uh eight schedule in my book so that's eating all food within eight hours eating all inadvertent commas food in within an eight hour window every day or some uh there are five days of intermittent fasting one day if this is if you want to go on sort of the weight loss program as well uh there's a 500 cal day there is a 16 8 intermittent fasting day and there's a day off okay um 21 days no alcohol no fried food no sure uh no fried food and try and cut out as much sugar as you possibly can

sure um so do some so tip three is some sort of mindful eating mindful eating shall we say yeah um and the final one is conscious movement when you are working out if you are at the gym be very be very aware don't just look at the mirror and go god that guy's gorgeous look at him i'm lifting some serious weight look at your form drop that chin pull those shoulders back drop the rib cage engage that core get your glutes firing and be really conscious on what it is you want to achieve that day when you are moving around. When you are exercising, just be very aware of how you move because 90% of it, if you crack that little code of, oh, I didn't realize I sit like this or I shift to one side so much more or whatever it is. Center yourself up, align yourself, and then trust me, you will be a lot happier in yourself. Yeah, David, brilliant. Really, really like those tips. And it really strikes me that a big theme

about everything you're talking about is really about mindfulness, but not necessarily in this sense of sitting down and meditating, although I'm sure you would be a proponent of that. I would, I would get to it. Um, but really being mindful of everything you're doing, mindful about when you eat, mindful about when you're sitting down, answering the phone, mindful about when you're in the gym, doing your workouts. This is a really common theme. And I think in this age of real distraction where, you know, even if you're in the gym, people are many times trying to take photos of themselves to post about it or catch up with

their emails whilst they're in the gym. And again, I get it. It's not about criticizing people. It's about saying, Hey, look, maybe it's a time where you can be really mindful and switch off from the outside world and focus on your body. Focus on you for a bit. Yeah. Yeah. Well, David, thanks for your time today. Um, Where can people connect with you online if they choose to do so? Instagram at David Higgins London. There is a Facebook community, David Higgins London as well.

And yeah, guys, get in touch if you have any questions or if you want to discuss anything. And I also have body space gyms in London as well, in Knightsbridge, Chelsea, and at the Corinthia Hotel. Fantastic. Amazing. Well, in the show notes page to this episode of the podcast, which will be at drchatterjee.com forward slash Hollywood,

I will link to all of David's social media handles, to your gyms, anything else, any exciting things online. I'll link to them all there. And you can also purchase the book from that page. David, hope to have you again on at some point in the future. Thank you very much for having me. That concludes today's episode of the Feel Better Live More podcast. I hope you enjoyed the conversation

and that it has left you feeling inspired about what you need to do to get the most out of the year ahead. You can check out the show notes page for the podcast at drchastji.com forward slash Hollywood. Do let David and myself know what you thought of today's episode by tagging us both on social media. In fact, why not take a screenshot on your phone right now and share it with your friends. If you regularly enjoy my weekly podcasts, one of the best ways to support it is to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or whichever platform you listen to podcasts on. These reviews help to raise visibility of the podcast, which in turn helps me to attract better guests. On today's show, David and I spoke about

a few ideas that I write about in detail in my brand new book, The Stress Solution. I discuss how exercise can be an excellent way of de-stressing, when of the right type and in the right dose. However, many of us are not thinking about the right type and intensity of exercise in the concepts of our wider lifestyles. I explain how you can do this in my book. I also have a whole chapter on the importance of a regular breathing practice to help manage your stress levels and have put together a breathing menu full of many different techniques so that you can choose the ones that appeal to you. The stress solution is available to order right now in paperback as well as on audiobook which

I am narrating. All the international book links for my book are available at drchatterjee.com forward slash book. That's it for today. I hope you have a fabulous week. Make sure you've pressed subscribe and I'll be back next week with my latest conversation. Remember, you are the architect of your own health. Making lifestyle changes always worth it. Because when you feel better, you live more.

I'll see you next time. Thank you.